Jerry ODell The Most Evil Thing

The Most Evil Thing on Earth
By Jerry ODell
All scripture references are from the King James Version of the Bible, unless otherwise noted.
First Edition - December 2010
The Most Evil Thing on Earth Copyright 2010 by ODell Ministries
Published by the ODell Ministries P.O. BOX 159 Pine Knot, KY 42635 office@odellministries.org www.odellministries.org
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction Chapter 1 Page 8 The Most Evil Thing on Earth Chapter 2 Page 12 The 3 Ds: Deception, Diversion and Discouragement Chapter 3 Page 21 Misjudging the Consequences Chapter 4 Page 36 Who Will Go To Hell? Chapter 5 Page 42 Understanding the Root of Deception Chapter 6 Page 52 Correctly Judging the Love of Money Chapter 7 Page 70 Right and Wrong Attitudes Chapter 8 Page 86 Errors of the Early Church Repeated Today Chapter 9 Page 98 Honest Repentance Results in Change Chapter 10 Page 106 Help for Ministers The Reality of Hell and Heaven - Page 121
INTRODUCTION
For fifty years, I have ministered outside of the United States, in scores of nations; and I have witnessed a lot of evil things suffered by innocent people. Throughout history, harmless citizens in nations all over the world have been slaughtered in wars, genocides, terrorist actions and tribal conflicts. More have suffered or lost their lives at the hands of serial killers, rapists and pedophiles. Fear of germ or chemical warfare looms large, in our generation, as does the fear of annihilation by nuclear warheads pointed toward several countries. Which of these atrocities humanity is executing against itself is the most evil? Is it genocide, committed when prejudice reigns against an entire race or creed of people? Is it war started for the express purpose of gaining more land, wealth or power? Is it serial killers, who torture and dismember their victims? Is it men who wear the garb of the clergy, as an easy entrance into the lives of young boys, so they can defile them? Is it terrorists hell-bent on murdering anyone who does not agree with their beliefs? What is the most evil thing on Earth? I believe that I have the mind of God when I adamantly declare there is something He considers even more evil than these horrible acts of violence. As in all of the above executions, human beings are responsible and only they can identify this evil in our generation. Only they can stop this most evil thing. I pray you will keep an open mind and a tender heart, as you read this book; and look with me to the Lord for help, in order that we might each make a difference in our world.
Jerry ODell
CHAPTER ONE
or many years, I have pondered why there are more than three billion people alive on the Earth today who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can the Church possess so much truth about the Bible, yet be so unsuccessful in reaching the lost of this generation with the Good News about the Son of God? An estimated thirty-six million people die annually world-wide without ever hearing the Gospel presented one time in a way that could result in their salvation. There are multitudes in many nations who would gladly receive Christ as their Savior, become a child of God and make Heaven their home, if someone would simply explain to them how through His shed blood, death and resurrection Christ provided forgiveness, redemption and eternal life for everyone who would believe in Him. There are certainly enough Christians alive on the Earth to accomplish the job of reaching the unreached and, quite frankly, the Church as a whole has plenty of money with which to get this job done. Why, then, are so many people still walking in spiritual darkness?
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The Body of Christ has truth, manpower, wealth and the equipment necessary to accomplish the job nearest to the heart of God; and thanks to modern technology, it is even possible to preach to millions of people at one time! We can travel across vast oceans in a matter of hours; but years ago, some missionaries endured long periods of time in miserably uncomfortable boats, trains or ox-carts to reach people in other nations. Thankfully, in our generation, jet planes can take us half-way around the world in a single day, at increasingly fast speeds. Of course, traveling inside some nations to reach the unreached can still be physically difficult. The train rides my wife and I often take to villages are rough and so are the road trips. We do not enjoy the filth, odors or clouds of pollution, yet these small discomforts are nothing compared to what the early missionaries suffered. The Apostle Paul sailed in slow-moving ships on dangerous seas and rode donkeys, but we can move so much easier and faster! This generation should be able to get the job done much more quickly! Nonetheless, we are losing the race in many countries, if not all of them! Consider this: According to recent statistics, 150,000 people die daily worldwide. A reported 33% claim to be Christians. Therefore, 100,000 die daily without Christ. The same World Bank for World Development statistics show that 1.17 billion of the total global population of 6.7 billion live in India. That one nation grows by approximately 44,000 per day. Government statistics report that 13-16% of the population is Christian. Therefore, nearly 30,000 Indians die daily who enter a Christless eternity. Many of them have never had an opportunity to hear the Gospel in a way that could affect their salvation. This is tragic! Even if there were actually double the number of Christians than those registered with the government, the number who die without having had a chance to choose Christ is overwhelming. During the same 20 years that my wife and I (and the other ministers who comprise the India Harvest Plan team) have won
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over 13 million villagers to Christ, Indias population grew by over 400 million. Even if I were to add that number to the numbers won thru the evangelistic efforts of other ministries, churches or individuals, I would not have to be an Einstein to calculate how we are losing the numbers race in that nation. The same is true in many other nations, where the rate of population-increase far exceeds the rate of new-convert-increase. Today, there are more people alive without Christ than the number of people who were alive on the entire planet when Jesus walked on Earth. Why are we falling behind? Every sincere Christian alive today should ask themselves this question and demand an answer! I Thank God for the glowing reports about revivals in some nations; however, when the rubber of reality hits the road, there are still numerous villages (in so many countries) teeming with human beings who have not been touched with the Gospel. They will remain untouched until the Church awakens out of its illusionarybased beliefs. In the succeeding chapters, I will attempt to shed some light on this situation. We must become acutely aware of why, by our sin of omission, we are assisting Satans slaughter of an estimated 36 million each year who die in an unregenerate state. If we combined all the atrocities, wars, genocides, tribal conflicts, terrorist acts, murders and natural disasters that occur in a years time, the combined total would not come near 36 million. This makes our failure to carry out Christs command to preach the Gospel to every person on our planet the most evil thing on Earth! With all my heart, after half a century of overseas ministry in scores of nations, I pray that at least a few in the Body of Christ will comprehend this honest presentation and make the necessary adjustments in their lives and ministries, so they can make a difference and more greatly expand the Kingdom of Heaven in this, our generation of influence and opportunity. REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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Chapter Two
ne of the primary reasons the Church is losing the race for souls in this generation is that Satan, the master of deception, has strategically introduced concepts, ideas and doctrines into the Church that detract from the emphasis and importance of the work Jesus Christ came to accomplish. He left Heaven and came to Earth to destroy the works of the devil (I John 3:8) and to seek and save those who are lost. (Luke 19:10) Since the Church is the current Body of Christ, we can surely say with scriptural accuracy that our job and emphasis should be the same as was His. To believe that the Church today should have a different emphasis than Jesus did when He was on the Earth is to say that, today, His Body has a different purpose. Obviously, this cannot be true! The Christ who was crucified on a Cross, shed His blood and rose from the dead is the Christ whose purpose every generation must emulate. Although, when Jesus taught and preached, He covered many
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The 3 Ds: Deception, Diversion and Discouragement
16:15-20 NKJV)
subjects critical to the morals, attitudes and activities of the Early Church, make no mistake that His instructions regarding the lost were clear! When He called the first believers to His side, Jesus said: Come, follow Me! I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:18 NIV) Those first disciples may not have fully comprehended what it meant to become a fisher of men, but they soon learned. Jesus Christ spent His life on Earth showing them how to do just that. Later, as He ascended to Heaven, His last words to His followers were, Go make disciples (Christians) of all nations. (Matthew 28:10 NIV) The way they were to accomplish this task was to: Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He promised those who would declare the truth about Him, He would be there to work with them when they did; and signs and wonders would follow as proof that their story was true. (Mark The intended result of His disciples obedience is that people will not perish, but have eternal life: a quality of life that begins here on Earth and continues throughout eternity. However, He also made it clear that if His disciples did not obey, those same people would perish for eternity! They would be damned, with no recourse! There was nothing more important for Christ to convey than this understanding of the ultimate job of the Church. It was this glorious commission that culminated His instructions to us while He was on this Earth. In this generation, however, it is clear that many in the Church have been deceived into emphasizing some other aspect of Christianity over the purpose and commission of Christ to reach the lost. This deception, for the most part, has not come from witch-doctors, evolutionists or false religions. It has come from within the Church, from hand-me-down priorities, doctrines and emphases, which were originally introduced by men who may have desired followers after themselves, more than they desired men to follow Christ. The Apostle Paul was very aware of the tragically consistent success of Satans input. So, before he left on the mission he felt
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would be his last, Paul gathered together the ministers he had mentored and influenced in the geographical area around Ephesus and warned them to beware of falling into Satans seductive trap. Acts 20:28-31 Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after themselves. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. NIV Paul pled with these ministers to remember how he had emphasized the preaching of the Gospel, both in his lectures and through his example. He had shown them how to consistently produce miracles at their own hands, by remaining faithful to the simple message of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He had taught them how to harvest plan in their geographical area, by preaching publicly and house-to-house. By the time Paul left that area, every person in the province then known as Asia had heard the Gospel. Without a doubt, he had infiltrated the thinking of these ministers with both a working strategy and comprehension of Gods priority: that all men, regardless of their race, nationality or religion are to be extended an opportunity to be born-again. These ministers were fully aware it was their job to exhort people of all backgrounds in such a way that they could understand why Jesus is the only way to God; and they would know how to call on His Name for salvation. Paul both taught these ministers and exemplified how the lost, and in particular the unreached, were to remain a priority in whatever work of service to God they accomplished, including the work of a pastor. The strong words of Paul, referring to ministers as wolves if they emphasized
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something other than the need for the simple Gospel to go to the unreached, was meant to jar them back on track. Paul understood and did his best to pass on the life-spurring truth that the ultimate focal point of all ministry-gift assignments is the lost. Unfortunately, Pauls warnings are still applicable and sadly appropriate today! Some ministers might say that Pauls warnings in Acts, chapter 20, do not apply to them, but we must take heed, because those he addressed probably did not believe the warnings were meant for them either. If we are willing to ask ourselves one simple question, our answer will shine the spotlight of truth upon each of our hearts: Is reaching the lost, in general and the unreached, in particular, a top priority in my life? It is not my desire to degrade other ministers, especially those who work very hard to please the Lord. However, I must follow the example set by Christ when He dictated the letters that were written and delivered to the seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation. He praised them where praise was due, but He was also incontestably honest in his criticism and firm in His judgments. Jesus did not hesitate to warn the ministers in leadership that there were eternal consequences to be paid, if they did not heed His corrections. Later in this book, we will discuss those corrections and consequences and how they affect the Body of Christ today. It is regrettable that much of the Body, in general, is following the emphases of similarly-misguided human leaders who are making the same errors in our generation. Let it suffice now to say that, while some believers alive today have a desire to reach the lost, many believers and churches do not embrace the scriptural truth that reaching the unreached is the primary directive of the Church at large, as well as the primary directive of each individual church. As an example, let me tell you about some pastors with whom I am acquainted. These men esteem, appreciate and enjoy my fellowship and I feel the same about them. I feel confident they believe in my wife
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and I and the work we do for the Lord. These are good men who love God, their families and their church congregations. Yet, some do not comprehend what I understand to be true from Pauls example and exhortations in the Word of God. These ministers would never commit adultery, are not charlatans, manipulators or con-artists. They are honorable, committed and morally good men; and they give God all the glory for what He does through them. Yet, they do not see this truth. They do not understand that the number one reason their church is in existence is to reach the lost in their nation, to disciple believers to do the same and to help others reach the lost in foreign lands. Why do they not comprehend this most simple directive, which is so clearly laid out in the Bible? I believe it is because they are either deceived, discouraged or diverted. Allow me to explain. Satan has the biggest part of the Church diverted. Like Jonah, many believers are standing on a dock, waiting for a boat headed to the wrong destination. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh and testify about God to those particular folk, so he boarded a ship for Tarshish. He single-handedly diverted himself away from the responsibility of Nineveh. Likewise, the Churchs priority has not been where it should be because good believers have failed to see the truth and accept their responsibility for reaching the lost at home and abroad. Good ministers, not evil ones, have been deceived into believing that whatever they emphasize in their churches and ministries and what they choose to do with their congregations money is totally correct in the sight of God. As a result, generation after generation follows them in those erroneous concepts. Some, who do understand the prime directive and who also desire to reach the lost, become discouraged and forget to persevere toward what God showed them they could accomplish. This happened to a young businessman who joined my wife and I on a harvest mission, where souls were won and healing miracles
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occurred after the preaching of the Gospel. During the two weeks this man was with us, he was so impacted that he wanted to give the rest of his life to reaching the lost. Although he had tremendous potential and was greatly inspired, he stopped communicating with us after the mission. Some years later, I learned his pastor had accused us of ruining that young man because, after returning home, he announced that he no longer desired to devote the rest of his life to running his fathers business. Instead, he would begin working toward giving his life to reaching the lost. Not only did the pastor complain, but he worked on him until, in his words, he settled him back down. However, the pastor did allow this young man to witness on the weekends. Can you imagine how God felt about that! This inspired young man wanted to give his life and the leadership said we ruined him! God help that pastor on Judgment Day! To enlighten you about the whole truth in this matter, however, I must explain how this young man was actually the pastors brother. Their father had accrued a great deal of wealth through his business. I suspect the pastor was concerned that, if his brother chose to pursue fulltime ministry and reach the lost, the finances from the father might be diverted away from his church. Finances are often at the root of these kinds of decisions and upsets. We have seen this story repeated in one form or another time and time again. One pastor actually said to us, Dont tell your people too much about the work you do in India. I do not want them hooking up with you or anyone else, because any money they give you is money taken from my church. This pastor eventually lost his church, his people and their money. It is the responsibility of a churchs leadership to financially stand behind men who are in agreement with Christs direction to reach the lost. In some cases, of course, a pastor can correctly assess that one of their congregation members is not qualified or will, for some other obvious reason, be unable to fulfill their
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personal dream of being involved in the harvest full time. However, when leaders do not encourage those who have potential to find their most productive position in the worlds fields of harvest, it is often because they are blinded and do not comprehend what is the main job of the Church. Without strong leadership relating these simple but obvious commands of God to those who submit to their teaching, the rank and file of ministers and lay people become easy prey for the devils deceptions, diversions and discouragement. Therefore, those in leadership must be the first ones to look beyond their own problems. They must not fear that changing their priorities would cost them too much. Pastors, especially, must remain loyal to the purpose of Christ and keep it at the forefront of the vision for their church. Many preachers, by example and by the way they prioritize, declare that reaching the unreached is very low in order of importance. The lost and dying of our world are the victims of this inverted attitude year after year and, at times, it seems those whose job assignment is to reap ripe fields overseas can do little about it. Evangelists should be working together with other ministry gifts to accomplish the job of reaching our planets billions. Pastors and evangelists should not ever strive against one another. Yet, I have heard of pastors who shut the door on reapers whose presentation becomes too strong. These men would never go against the truth head-on, in front of their people, but they will find other reasons to disassociate. Some may attack a reapers doctrine on healing, or say their attitude toward salvation is too liberal or they do not obey certain religious legalities. Nonetheless, each individual minister and believer can, and should, make a decision to stick with the whole truth and nothing but the truth! I do not understand why every Christian church body does not make reaching the lost a priority! Believe it or not, I have heard some ministers disregard their churchs responsibility for reaching the world with this excuse: We have the lost right in our own back yard. Why dont we reach them first! However, those who
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excuse themselves with this attitude seldom ever reach them at home either. God has given some of us the contacts and ability to reach multitudes overseas. At home, there are churches on every corner and the job of reaching our nation could be completed in a relatively short period of time, if they all did their part. If we were to examine each missions program from churches that embraced a born-again experience we would find that, in many cases, reaching the lost is such a minute part of what they or their money does that it should be an embarrassment to them. Their missions programs may include a lot of good things, but current statistics computed by a large Protestant denomination in the United States reveals how only one half of one percent of the 220 billion dollars the Church, in general, spends annually is spent in areas where the unreached reside. Most likely, not a large portion of that pathetic amount is actually used to evangelize those who have never heard the Gospel. That is the reason this book exists! I hope what I share with you will set up a fail-safe program within you, so when you hear deceptions, the devil will not successfully discourage or divert you from doing all you can to fulfill the primary directive of the Church. One program most computers today employ is a virus scan. Each time this program is run, it checks out the stored data and warns the operator when a file is corrupted. It is my desire for this book to establish a virus scan within you that will help you recognize when a thought, concept, emphasis or doctrine is from the devil. All of us would like to believe we are smarter than the devil and do not need such a thing, but it would be ignorant of us to say that Satan has not succeeded in deceiving a lot of the Church in every generation. Otherwise, there would not be 3-4 billion people alive who have never had an opportunity to call on the Name of the Lord. For their sakes, I would rather be labeled extreme than to compromise with those who are in error, simply to get along with them. I hope my gentle, but direct, approach in this book will awaken, enlighten and gain the cooperation of ministers and believers, so they can be wholly loyal to God, regardless of
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what it appears it may cost them. REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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CHAPTER THREE
Misjudging the Consequences
t is easy to comprehend how some preachers whose primary motivation in the ministry is to receive a source of income would not understand the prime directive of the Church. However, this is not the principal motivation of most of Gods ministers. As mentioned in the previous chapter, most ministers who are currently blind to the truth became blind through the deception, discouragement and/or diversion of Satan. Doctrinal deception is one of his most effective methods. There are several current deceptive teachings running rampant in the Body of Christ, which diffuse the urgency of the job of harvesting lost souls. (We will discuss some of them in future chapters.) This is unfortunate because, when the harvest is hindered by these sometimes subtly infiltrated doctrines and emphases, people all over the world remain damned for eternity. The command to preach the Gospel to every creature in Mark, chapter 16, is really quite clear and should not be so easily diffused. Nonetheless, it is! Therefore, since most believers and churches clearly do not make reaching the lost, in general and the
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unreached, in particular, the primary reason for their existence, the question I have been asking myself is: Can it possibly be true that believers today misjudge the consequences of their disobedience to Christs command? In Genesis, chapter 2, one thing seems clear to me. The reason for the first sinful act of disobedience by man is that Adam must have misjudged the consequences of his disobedience. Genesis 2:15-17 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. NKJV The Word of God makes it crystal clear that this first man bears the responsibility for the spiritual death of mankind. God had spoken clearly to him. He was not to eat, or even touch, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God warned him plainly that if he did eat of that tree, he would surely die. Perhaps Adam and Eve had never seen anything die and did not fully comprehend death. Still, God surely must have told Adam, in some way that he comprehended, how he and Eve would be separated from Him in a way that was very different and unpleasant, if they disobeyed. At that time, Satan had no power over them. His power came when they listened to his deception. In essence, when God stated the consequence of their disobedience, He basically said: If you disobey, you will experience death. That is something you do not fully understand. So, stay away from that tree! Obey me and do what I say and everything will remain perfect! Then, suddenly, this cunning creature came, most likely in a beautifully pleasant way and challenged them with the words, Did God really say ?
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Genesis 3:1-6 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. NIV As you know, Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree. Could it be they simply did not fully anticipate the results of disobeying Gods command? What the serpent offered sounded good to their ears. Their understanding of the consequence of disobedience did not serve sufficiently to stop them.
The Consequence of Our Disobedience

When Jesus began His instructions to His followers with, Follow Me. I will make you fishers of men! ... His disciples may not have fully comprehended what it meant to become a fisher of men, but they were soon to learn. Later, when Christ ascended to Heaven and spoke His last words to His followers: Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned, they may not have understood the consequences of failing to obey that commission. Perishing begins while on Earth for those who are damned (condemned) and their degeneration continues on into eternity. When I hear preachers say how things here on Earth are just going
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to get better and better, I know they have not seen what I have seen. They have not seen the millions of human beings who live in filth and degradation, worshipping idols with eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear. These people are paying the price for their ancestors being beguiled by the devil. Believers become beguiled by the devil after he tricks them with false doctrine or wrongly emphasized purpose. He is able to do that because believers have not been sufficiently warned about the consequence of their disobedience. Therefore, they do not totally understand the consequence. The consequence of prison is the one thing that keeps sinners from taking a gun and robbing everyone who has money. Those who would like to rob others, but are greatly concerned that if they are caught they will go to prison and suffer, will choose not to disobey the law. In some countries, the main reason many people are hesitant to become involved in drug trafficking is that they fear the repercussions. I Timothy 2:14 tells us that Eve was beguiled by the devil and Adam chose to sin. Perhaps Adam did not sufficiently fear the repercussions of his actions. Evidently, Eve was deceived, in spite of hearing Gods command from Adam. We know Adam reiterated the warning of God because Eve actually quoted Gods words to the devil. She should have replied by saying, Wait a minute. God did say that! Yet, she listened to, and accepted, the words of Satan because they were pleasing to her ear. She liked how they sounded and she shared those words with Adam. He liked the sound of them, too. The thought of obtaining the glory that Satan spoke of overrode the remembrance or understanding of the consequences of their disobedience! Adam and Eve probably did not fully anticipate the repercussion of their disobedience. When the devil told them they would not surely die, they wanted to believe him, so they partook of the fruit. When they handed over their God-given authority to the devil, a separation occurred between themselves and God. It was not until Jesus came, thousands of years later, that all people
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could hear the Gospel, call on the name of the Lord, be reconciled to God completely and have their authority returned. The human race has suffered so long, from the consequence of Adam and Eves disobedience! Many of those alive now are suffering unnecessarily. Could it be that the Church today is making the same mistake Adam and Eve made? I believe it is entirely obvious that the Church today does not fully anticipate or comprehend the repercussions of their disobedience to Christs command, just as Adam and Eve probably did not fully comprehend the repercussions of their disobedience to God. I would like to believe that if my wife, Marilyn, had come to me in that garden with a beautiful piece of fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and told me that if we would eat it, we would become as gods I would have sternly replied: Wife of mine! God has said we are not to partake of that tree. I hope we can get away with you even touching this! On the other hand, perhaps I would not have responded correctly to that temptation. All of us have probably thought, I would never have fallen for that trap, as Adam and Eve did! but given the same circumstances we may have also misjudged the consequences of disobedience. If, as a child, your mother made some soft peanut brittle, but warned you not to eat any until after supper, you would have probably been tempted to eat it anyway because you loved that peanut brittle so much! You might have weighed the results of disobeying your mother and realized that, although you may get your hand smacked, your punishment would not be a serious thing. Consequently, you would take some peanut brittle from the jar because you were not really afraid of what she would do to you. You were willing to gamble, in order to partake of that tasty morsel. Let us say, though, that she had some green apples lying on the windowsill and she told you not to eat any of them because she wanted to use them to make a pie. She might even warn you how
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they would give you a bellyache if you ate them. Yet, you would not really want to believe her because you really desired those apples. Thirty minutes after you ate some, naturally, you would be sick. Why? You misjudged the consequences of disobeying your mothers command. Similarly, Gods warning was not heeded by Adam and Eve and there were so many consequences of that sin! Their own son killed his brother. The soil would not easily yield fruit. The devil brought sickness and demon torment into the human race. Childbirth was painful, etc. and, although we feel wiser now because we see what happened to them, consider this. Could it be that the Church today is making the same mistake Adam and Eve made? I believe it is entirely correct to state that the Church today does not fully anticipate the repercussions of their disobedience to Christs command! Christ expected His disciples to let Him make them fishers of men. As they did, they were required to deny themselves and follow Him daily and to lose their lives, so they could find them. He explained they would be filled with the Holy Spirit, so they could be His witnesses; and He commanded them to preach the Gospel everywhere. He did this because He had been given total authority to send them into the world, so they could preach and disciple all nations. In other words, they were to make Christians of all nations! These utterances from God are just as clear and definite as, You shall not partake of the fruit of this tree. It is hard to believe that the Church today asks, Did Jesus really mean that all of us are to be concerned about every lost soul alive in this generation? How can this question even cross the minds of believers? How did the devil beguile so many Christians? I believe Satan beguiled some of those who do not focus their lives and finances on the lost here and abroad through false doctrine. He planted some thoughts in their wrongly educated minds like, Not every believer is anointed to win souls. Some believers are called to share or preach the Gospel, but you may
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not be called to do so. Some believers possess a gift from God that enables them to excel at winning souls, but you may be gifted in other areas, instead. God does not require churches to give to ministries that are reaping souls, unless the leadership feels led to give to them. Why did the devil subtly introduce these seducing and unscriptural thoughts into the Body of Christ? He did so because, once injected, they allow believers to excuse themselves, in their own minds, from being involved in following Jesus the way He desires. To say, I am not called to win souls! or I am not anointed to win souls! is where I take exception and so does Jesus. If a believer says, I am called to be a song leader, a pastor, a teacher, an administrator, but others are called to win souls, that believer is in error. While everyone may not be encouraged by God to be an evangelist or missionary, everyone is required to reap those whom they have the power to sway. If a Christian explains their lack of soul-productivity this way, She is anointed to win souls, but I am not, that person is in error! Others are not anointed to win souls. They are bold to witness! Jesus said clearly to go into all the world. The Apostle Paul reiterated Christs command by making it crystal clear that people cannot hear of His salvation, if we do not go and preach to them or SEND OTHERS TO DO SO. Every believer fits somewhere on a harvest team! Romans 10:13-15 Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? NIV These directives were not just given to exclusive people in the Church. They were given to explain Gods strategy to every
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member of Christs Body at large! Some believers can go, some can send, but all can share Christ within their sphere of influence.
When Ego Became Involved

Satan appealed to Adam and Eves ego. They knew God had been good to them, gave them everything and held nothing back from them. He was a wonderful Creator and Provider. The devil certainly could not appeal to them on the basis of His lack of provision for them. I do not really understand completely what the devil did to make them willing to turn against God, by minimizing the repercussions of His warning, but I do believe that somehow the devil successfully diffused the instructions and the CONSEQUENCES of disobedience. He had to convince Adam and Eve that separation from God was not really what it is. Somehow today, the devil beguiles the Church into believing that people who do not hear the Gospel will be judged another way, so some of them will make it into Heaven; or that the repercussion of people going to Hell is not really so bad. I have to believe that Christians do not fully comprehend the consequences of their disobedience; otherwise, I would constantly be angry with a great number of people in the Body of Christ. I have to believe they have been deceived! I also believe with certainty that I will never be deceived, when it comes to Gods prime directive. I have been to too many places where the masses live. I have seen the sweet, old village women who are forced to work at hard labor. I understand the fact that, in spite of their goodness, their sweetness and what they have suffered on this Earth, they will still go to Hell, if someone does not come up with creative ideas to get the Gospel to them. I fully understand Gods command and why He gave it to the Church! Many do not understand. They are easy prey for deceptive doctrines. Christians have been beguiled, if they believe that those who have never heard the Gospel and have never had an opportunity to call on the Name of the Lord might somehow,
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someway still live with God for eternity. They do not understand how this belief is scripturally inaccurate. Most likely, they learned of this doctrine through ministers who substantiated their teaching with a few scriptures plucked out of context. False doctrines will not correlate with the commands of Christ or the explanations of those commands by the Apostle Paul. Among those misused verses are usually Romans 2:12-16. For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel. Some believe these scriptures imply that God has three different criteria by which he judges believers, Jews and unbelieving Gentiles. However, when these verses are read in context with the entirety of Romans, chapters 1-3, several things become obvious. First, Paul made it clear that Gentiles who have sinned without the Law, will perish without the Law. Second, he made it clear that the Jews who had the Law will perish by the Law, when they sin according to the Law. The Jews to whom Paul was referring and probably addressing felt righteous before God simply because they had the Law and were circumcised. He was trying to convict them of their unrighteousness and enlighten them at the same time. Third, Paul explained how the heathen possessed a cultural conscience upon which their moral code of conduct was written, which caused them to point a finger of guilt at one another when someone violated their laws. Paul is not pointing out that the heathen are guiltless if they have lived according to their
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conscience; nor is he saying that the Jews are righteous and will be judged so, after living by the Law. Paul draws to a conclusion the focal point of his explanation in Romans 3:10: There is none righteous. No, not one! Verse 23 declares: ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, the judgment of God for all mankind is GUILTY! Whether they judge themselves by the law written on their heart, the Jewish Law or whatever, there are none who would escape condemnation. No one can be justified, except by Gods grace through Jesus Christ. This makes sense, does it not? How could the Gentile world, which is so full of guilt and corruption, be justified by their works? How could Jews be justified - once the Christ had risen from the dead - by their imperfect keeping of the Law? In our dispensation, the Jews are in the same horrible state everyone else was and is in. They are all under sin! (Romans 3:9) This is the crucial point of Romans, chapters 1-3. Today, as then, the need for the Gospel is very desperate among Jews, heathen and many nominal Christians. There is no other way to be saved, but to hear about Jesus and then call upon His Name. Until this reality is unshakably planted in the understanding of todays ministers and laymen, there will always be a certain explainable lethargy toward evangelizing foreign nations. As a matter of fact, because this damnable doctrine is accepted within segments of the Church, whole congregations have excused themselves from the Great Commission by believing that the heathen actually have a better chance of being saved if they do not hear the Gospel. Here is their explanation. They begin by stating Mark 16:16: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Then, they reverse-twist this scripture to surmise that, if the heathen do not hear the Gospel, they cannot reject Christ. If they hear it and reject it, they will surely be damned. Therefore, if they never hear the Gospel, but are good people and have done their best to live by their conscience, they have a chance at Heaven. This is
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human logic at its useless worst! I have wondered why, in this age of computer Bible helps and study aides, this devilish doctrine remains alive and well? It is probably because believers follow their leaders by emphasizing in their own lives what those leaders have emphasized, rather than what the Bible accentuates. In their defense, many of the rolemodel leaders in some circles of Christianity simply inherited ignorant beliefs and prejudices that affect their judgment today. Some men of God from previous eras were raised in the South of the United States of America during the age when racial prejudice and its influence were still very obvious. Sadly, some who were born as late as 1900 had to be taught that dark-skinned people had a soul. Others believed that women did not have a soul. Sadly, many of those who believed these statements were also believers in Christ. Please do not be offended by this if you are dark-skinned of if you are a woman. This ignorant thinking is a shame to any nation, yet it remains a fact that this thinking did exist! Another influencing factor is that modern methods of communication and transportation were not available years ago. Without television and airplanes, international exposure was limited and people in the Western Hemisphere remained somewhat unenlightened about people on the other side of the world. A photograph of a native from another land, scantily clothed with painted markings on his face, seemed to some to appear subhuman. It might have been difficult for their pre-conditioned minds to comprehend how that mortal could actually understand the Gospel and be saved. While the above archaic beliefs are embraced by very few today, this mentality has had an almost subconscious impact on some church leaders in this generation, in this regard: Preachers today have unwittingly followed the leading of their prejudiced or unknowledgeable but in other ways godly predecessors regarding their lack of emphases on reaching the unreached. If todays ministers are truly sincere men and women, they are
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probably unaware they have been following the foul influence of ignorance and prejudice, which is what caused their role models to make the decisions they made. One thing is certain. Those decisions were not, in fact, the result of a correct understanding of the Word of God! Now, before you revolt at what I have just stated, think about why I am saying what I am saying! It is my desire to unmask the lies of Satan and to make the consequences of following him so obvious to the Church that believers who are lethargic in their attitude toward the unreached will change. Surely, most believers are not so uncaring, selfish and lazy that they choose to ignore the fact that people are going to Hell, are they? Although that may be true of some, I do not think it is true of the majority. Their dilemma is understandable. No Christian in any generation has wanted to accept the fact that seemingly nice people will burn in Hell. Inescapable eternal damnation is a horribly difficult thing for our minds to absorb and retain. An even more difficult thing to accept is that it is our fault! Our computerlike brains desperately want to shuck this truth out of their data banks. Ponder, for a moment, the life of an African woman who has lived all her life in a village. Though she may not be well-educated, she has done her best to lovingly raise her children to be good people in their society. She has spent her life washing clothes and cooking food for her family and never purposely harmed anyone. When she dies, what is her eternal destiny ... Heaven or Hell? If no one came to her with the Gospel, the answer is HELL! It is natural for our human minds to try to justify a way out for her and for the millions like her. The burden of truth can sometimes feel so HEAVY that we attempt to reason it away: Surely God did not really mean what He said. Surely, this cannot be OUR fault! IT IS OUR FAULT, though! It is our responsibility to reach this woman and precious people like her all over the world. Their
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forefathers may, or may not, have had an opportunity to accept or reject Christ, but each generation is responsible for the people alive during that generation. We need to reach every person! The more compassionate you are, the more willing you will be to accept doctrines that give people destined for Hell a reprieve. If you are tempted to do so, remember to review what Jesus said and did when He saw how Satan was tormenting the lost, in Matthew 9:36. He immediately made a call for workers to harvest the ripe fields of humanity. Then, in Matthew 14:14, He set our example by doing something about the need. This is the difference between human compassion and a divine, Christliketype of compassion. The Church at large could get the job done, if ministers and believers were as willing to be made fishers of men as were the original disciples of Jesus. Those disciples knew that these devilish doctrines we are discussing could not be true. The Apostle Paul understood they are not true. Doubting Thomas understood. (I have personally seen the monument erected to his memory in Chennai, India, where he was martyred.) He, and all the rest, understood and yet, it seems the price for this clarity of mind was too high for most to pay in more recent generations. Nonetheless, it is not too late for the Church to see, in the Word of God, that we are responsible for the slaughter of millions of people every month. It may be too late for those who are already condemned to a Christless eternity, but it is not too late for the 36 million who will die unregenerate this year. The time for confusion is over! Believers must understand that, if folks do not hear the Gospel, they are damned for eternity. Recently, we have listened to believers enthusiastically share rumors about large numbers of unsaved people in closed nations, where laws forbid the public preaching of the Gospel, who come to Christ through dreams and visions. Take heed when you hear such accounts, for unless those dreams or visions include a knowledge of who Jesus Christ is and what He came to do, salvation cannot
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occur. Dreams and visions may open otherwise closed minds, so they become willing to seek out or hear the truth concerning Christ, but without understanding the way to salvation, they will never know how to obtain it. Unfortunately, the devil can take reports of an unusual supernatural occurrence, such as mass salvations occurring through a vision, and lull the Body of Christ into lethargy. Remember, it is Gods plan for everyone alive to hear the Gospel, believe what they hear and then call on the Name of the Lord. REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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CHAPTER FOUR
Who Will Go To Hell?
here are other devilish doctrines making their way into the minds of otherwise sincere believers. One states that Hell does not exist as a literal place. Another insists that Hell is not what Christians traditionally think it is: a prison of fiery eternal torment and separation from God, from which there is no escape. These doctrines persist, in spite of an obvious lack of scriptural evidence. Unbiased scriptural proof does exist, however, assuring us that Hell is a real place; and those who are ungodly, because they have not believed in and received Christ as their Savior, will face a day of judgment. Those judged to be unrighteous without Christ will suffer eternal consequences; however, if you doubt the existence of a literal Hell, I invite you to examine the pages printed after the last chapter. They contain scriptures that will help convince you to shun that very real and horrible place. Afterward, you will also find some joyful verses promising a literal Heaven to those who are in Christ when they pass from this Earth.
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Christians who know Christ as their Savior will never, thank God, suffer the same eternal torment as those whose names are not found written in what the Bible refers to as the Book of Life. Revelation 20:14-21 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyones name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. NIV This next verse also makes reference to the Book of Life. In Philippians 4:3, Paul mentions that a particular Christian woman, along with other people working with him to spread the Gospel, have their names written in this book. We can clearly ascertain from this verse that believers in Jesus Christ will not be thrown into the lake of fire. Philippians 4:3 Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. NIV In Revelation, Jesus again mentions how the names of the righteous are written in that book. Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and His angels. NIV Who, then, will be thrown into this torturous, neverending lake of fire? The answer is crystal clear: everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life. Revelation 13:8
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All inhabitants of the Earth will worship the beast all whose names have not been written in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. NIV For the sake of the inhabitants of the entire Earth, we must not misjudge the consequences of our disobedience to Christs command to reach every human being alive with the Gospel! If we do, millions of people who have never been introduced to the Lamb will suffer. It is our glorious opportunity to keep as many of their names as possible from being blotted out of the Book of Life. We must recognize that this was the most important instruction He gave the Church and He shouted it, once again, as He ascended into Heaven. If the Church is greatly disobedient, fewer believers from each generation will take the knowledge of the Tree of Life the good news of what Jesus did to those who have no hope. Multitudes in nations all over our planet are without hope, whether they realize it or not, because they are without Christ. Today, there are over three billion people alive who would go to Hell if they died tomorrow, mainly because the Church has misjudged the results of not spreading the Gospel. We are theologically sewing fig leaves together, trying to cover up our nakedness, figuratively speaking. Christians unwittingly do things to cover up our wrong priorities. Some major on social extensions of the Church, but that does not get the job done. Feeding the hungry and clothing the poor are good things to do, but they are not our first priority as the Body of Christ. Some travel to other nations on mission outreaches, teaching in churches. This is a good thing to do and is often beneficial, but teaching in churches is not the same, nor is it a substitute for, bringing the Gospel to the lost. Some major on education and, thank God for those who do; but along with an influx of Western education and culture usually comes increased prostitution, pornography and other problems. When we educate the poor and ignorant without giving them an
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opportunity to accept Christ, all we do is make them educated sinners. I must say again, the Church as a whole has not fully anticipated the results of her disobedience. However, as an individual, you can change your destiny and the eternal destiny of others by doing all you can! If you cannot go to Africa, go to your neighbor. Do something! Dont just let them go to Hell! Dont be beguiled by the devil. He is still the master of subtlety. Recently, while swimming in a village pool in India, I met 23year-old male twins who had been backpacking across that nation. The devil beguiled me into believing they would not be interested in what I had to say; however, my wife made some headway while witnessing to one of them. A couple of days later, when I saw him again, I was able to lead him to the Lord. How had I let the devil beguile me earlier into thinking this hippie-type young man would not receive from me? The devils deceptions may have begun in the Garden of Eden, but when the New Testament Church was formed, it did not take any time at all for the devil to begin tricking them, too. He beguiled Peter into thinking he was not responsible to go to the Gentiles with the Gospel. It took a vision on a rooftop, the commanding voice of the Lord and a man coming to the door, sent from God, for Peter to be willing to obey the command of Christ. (Acts 10:1-48) That incident took place years after Christs resurrection, yet Peter probably would not have gone to that Italian band at the house of Cornelius unless he received those supernatural communications from Heaven. He had been deceived! This is a good lesson for us all to remember. Often, if God interrupts a persons thinking with visions or dreams, it may be because they are stubborn and He is trying desperately to correct or direct them. Most New Testament visions have some obvious hook in them meant to correct our doctrine or redirect us; and they usually either directly, or indirectly, affect the winning of souls or the saving of lives. Most of the New Testament ministers who
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received visions did not receive them because they were faultless, great men of God. They often received them because they needed correction or direction. Even they sometimes forgot to put the commands of Jesus in a priority position.
Did He Really Mean Me?

Did the Lord really mean for you to feel included in Romans, chapter 10? If you truly want to be all you can for God, but are convinced you need a calling or anointing to win souls or be concerned about winning them, you will keep asking yourself, Did He really mean me? Does He really want me to bring men and women to the place where they will repeat a salvation prayer with faith in their heart that Jesus is the only way to God? Some are reading and thinking, Of course! Sadly, others are not! Some years ago, Marilyn and I participated in a missions-type convention where another couple was also ministering. After we preached and challenged the people to look upon ripe harvest fields, the female half of this couple took the microphone and said, Oh, little children, rejoice in the Lord. Do not take on the burden of the world. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. This woman was a sweet lady, who was kind and considerate. Sadly, she was not very bright when it came to understanding scriptures. We had just challenged the congregation to do their part for those who had never heard the Gospel and she unhooked them! Some of these people were probably relieved and thought, Oh, boy! I do not have to worry about those poor condemned souls. I will just pray and the Holy Spirit will float around in a cloud and His Glory will get them saved! I am not the one placing this load of opportunity upon the Church. That load was placed upon the shoulders of every believer because Adam and Eve fell. The responsibility became yours when you received Christ. His responsibility which is better stated as His glorious opportunity will remain yours as long as you live on this Earth. What the Holy Spirit would like us to understand is that His burden is light and He will give us the strength to bear
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up under the load. It is when you make your own deals with God that you can sometimes have a nervous breakdown. None of us should ever fail to remember there is only one way to God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me! (John 14:6 NKJV) If there are no souls being won through your life and no consistency of the same in your church, both you and the church may be missing an element of godly compassion. When Jesus looked on the multitudes in Matthew 9:35, He was moved with compassion. How do you know if you have the compassionate heart of the Father? Give yourself a test. Do you ever witness about Jesus to people other than Christians? How long has it been since you won someone to the Lord or witnessed to them? If you do witness, are you being successful? A compassionate person will do their best to find a successful angle with which to approach each individual. Some feel that, if they share Christ and their message is rejected, those who reject it deserve to go to Hell. Believers with compassion will not dust off their hands and feet. They will try again. We are to forgive their rejection seventy-times-seven. In other words, if we are counting, there is no compassion in us! If you cannot recall witnessing to anyone during the last month, you need to be concerned. Dont get panicky and do not go on a forty-day fast! Just think about this fact and examine yourself honestly. Realize it is possible to comprehend and exercise the Word of God in other areas, yet still not be the Light of the world. It is possible to do good works, but not be a light shining in dark places. You might even see miracles in your church; but do not mistake miracles among believers with compassion for the lost. I know ministers who care more about what miracles do for their ministry than for those on whom Jesus would have compassion. I can say that without malice, for my wife and I are privileged to see Christ perform more miracles, on a regular basis, than most. REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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Chapter Five
uring more than four decades of working in foreign nations, I have seen much of the world. However, today it is possible for an individual to see and learn quite a lot about the world and the evil within it, just by watching television. In this Age of Information, television is also enlightening us as to what the human race is discovering about Gods Universe. Recently, I watched a television documentary explaining how scientists are rewriting astronomy textbooks because they have made so many discoveries recently about outer space. Some of what astronomers once thought were absolute truths have been disproved and should no longer be taught in schools. Knowledge in this area has increased so fast that scientists are now able to tell us what the sky looked like on a specific day, hundreds of years ago. This documentary mentioned the discovery of new planets, which totally disrupts the premise on which fortune-telling astrologers have based their beliefs for generations. Similarly, this program revealed how the number of new
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Understanding The Root of Deception
discoveries in the field of Oceanography also made current textbooks obsolete. As I listened, I realized that the scientific community seems willing to embrace change in these areas and is even enthused about their new discoveries. I could not help comparing the attitude of scientists in these two fields with the opposite attitude displayed by the scientific community involved in the war between the Darwinian Theory of Evolution and the Creation Theory, as stated in the Bible. All one has to do is look up Creation Theory on an internet search-engine to see that there is a battle raging, not only between scientists and believers in Jesus Christ, but amongst members of the scientific community itself. One well-known scientist stated that when we, as a nation, allowed the Theory of Evolution (which states we evolved from apes) to be taught in our schools as fact, the integrity of science began disintegrating rapidly. Please allow me to continue explaining this scenario, as you will soon see how it relates to our subject. After researching both sides extensively, to the best of our ability, my wife and I have concluded that there is actually no evidence to prove that we evolved from apes, but there are a lot of people, mainly scientists, who vehemently disagree on which discoveries prove or disprove any number of things in relation to Darwins theory. Interestingly, there are also a growing number of respected scientists, highly-degreed in this field, who were formerly proponents of The Theory of Evolution, but are now scientifically propagating the Argument for Intelligent Design. They changed their thinking and what they taught when they realized undeniable discoveries had been made with new technology that disproved their accepted theories regarding how life began. Those new discoveries sufficiently proved to them that only an intelligent Creator could have designed and birthed life in the first place. All of this aside, those who remain evolutionists must remember that, even if evolution could be proven, it would not disprove the existence of God, Jesus and the plan of salvation. It may be possible to believe in evolution and also believe that Gods plan was behind it. Therefore, the millions of students who were
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erroneously taught in school about the certainty of evolution can still bypass what is in their heads and accept God and His Son into their hearts. One thing should be commonly agreed upon worldwide. Only proven scientific facts should be passed onto our students. Yet, there are significant numbers of non-Christian scientists who cannot agree what to teach them. That is because there are, and probably will continue to be, large holes in widely accepted subtheories on this subject. I have pondered, Why is this? Why do some scientists and authors work so hard at forcing data to be accepted as fact, when it is questionable data, according to so many of their peers? Why will unbelieving scientists not accept evidence that is contrary to their stance on this subject? Scientists were willing to change their minds about the world being flat, when that theory was disproved. They were willing to change their minds about the number of planets, the smallest particle of matter and many other former absolutes. Why, then, will they muddy the water so, when they fail to obtain concrete, beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt proof in this arena? Aside from the obvious fact that human beings, who do not want to submit their life to a God who demands morality, integrity, honesty, compassion and fairness, would prefer to believe in evolution, why are those scientists so stubbornly unscientific? One answer seems logical to me. There are millions of dollars in grant money given to scientists in several fields, who are in some way involved in finding the missing link between apes and men. The purpose for obtaining certain degrees, the purpose for excavating, and the purpose for the existence of some related areas of science altogether revolves around searching for proof of mans evolution from animals. Basically, beside scientific pride (and the promise of fame) money seems to be very much at the root of the whole thing. The scientists who examine the oceans and outer space do not
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mind changing their theories because, when new findings present themselves, they will not lose their grant money and their reason for existing. They, in fact, might be promoted after each discovery and obtain more grant money for further research. In the area of Evolution vs. Creation, however, if scientists were to agree they should challenge some of their fossil dating systems or admit there will never be a missing link found, some of them will lose their purpose for existing, the related money they live from and the money they could receive in the future. The Bible states that the root of all evil is the love of money. If withholding the Gospel from those who have never heard it is the most wicked thing on Earth then, most likely, money is somewhere at the root of it. As we discuss the ways the Church has been deceived regarding its monetary priorities, the best place to begin is with the widely-accepted concept of believers tithing to a local church. The mainstay argument for this concept stems from Malachi, chapter 3, from which pastors warn their congregations that they are robbing God if they do not bring one tenth of their income directly into their church. However, let us consider this question: What is the greatest form of robbery against God? Could the answer be, Those who rob Him of the precious souls who have never been won to Christ because the Gospel was never brought to them?
What does it mean to rob God?

In every generation, Satan has worked hard at keeping the Church in general deceived, so they will not acknowledge that reaching the lost is the number one job of the Church. He has successfully established incorrect doctrines and priorities throughout entire denominations and within independent churches. I believe one of those deceptions is that the entire tithe should go to the local church to be used as they see fit. Before you become upset at my statement, consider this. In many churches, the leadership chooses to allow a small pittance of their money to go toward reaching the lost. In my opinion, and I believe in Gods opinion,
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they are robbing God. It is quite possible that, in the thinking of God, it is only acceptable for the entire tithe of believers to pass into their local church when that church makes its priority reaching the lost. Please allow me to clarify my stance. The following verses are the most widely embraced portion of Scripture regarding tithing. Most churches and church organizations use them to inspire their people to give their tithes. From the pulpit on Sunday morning they begin reading boldly, Will a man rob God? Malachi 3:8-11 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, In what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, Says the LORD of hosts, If I will not open for you the windows of Heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes NKJV The people Malachi was addressing in these verses brought the curse of Gods displeasure upon themselves. God promised these people that, if they would do what He asked, He would rebuke the devourer for their sakes. How do we pull that over into the New Testament? Do we just read it on Sunday morning and tell the people to pay their tithes to the church, because if they do not, they will be cursed for robbing God? The fact that tithing began before the dispensation of the Law does not change the fact that we are currently in a different dispensation from those Malachi was admonishing. Of course, the general application that could be highlighted from this passage of scripture is that these people were withholding something from God. From there on, we must be careful not to take too much liberty and violate the laws of interpretation of the
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Bible. One of those laws confines us to making certain that what is in the Old Testament can be transferred to the New Testament. If the coming of Christ and His death and resurrection in any way changed the teachings or emphasis of the Old Testament, that invalidates the Old Covenants teaching. For example, if we did not take the time to search the New Testament scriptures, after reading about the command of God to sacrifice animals, we could still fall prey, in this dispensation, to anyone who taught that we should still be sacrificing animals if we really want to please God. Of course, no Christian minister today would do such a thing. The clergy has interpreted the Old Testament command to sacrifice animals in light of the New Testament and they have taught their people correctly. Therefore, we do not see people bringing lambs to church on Sunday to be sacrificed on the altar. It goes without saying that the blood of Christ is better than the blood of a lamb; and because of His shed blood, now the just can live by faith in that sacrifice of Christ. Few would argue this point. Yet, the same ministers who believe in the blood of Christ for the redemption of the sins of mankind will take other scriptures directly out of the Old Testament, without any New Testament parallel, example, application or instruction from the Lord giving them the right to do so, and then teach it to their parishioners. With this in mind, I am going to be so bold as to continue confronting the issue of tithing and things related to tithing. Why would I choose to do such a thing? I must choose to because erroneous teaching hinders the harvest. It hinders the ability of the Body of Christ to reach the lost. Somehow, wrong teaching that infiltrated the Church has caused entire congregations to withhold the Good News of Jesus Christ from the unreached, which we have already determined is the most evil thing a church can do. Their sin is a sin of omission. Basically, in Malachi, God corrected the people by showing them they had participated in evil and robbed God. Why did they rob God? How had they participated in evil and become a victim
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of the root of all evil? They robbed God because they loved what they obtained by doing so. Have you ever heard of someone robbing a vendor who had left a bunch of rotten eggs on his cart? Of course not! Thieves do not want rotten eggs. Thieves rob people of the items they themselves want. In this way, the people Malachi addressed had robbed God. Whatever money or valuables were considered good for barter at that time, God expected them to make ten percent of it available to Him. Today, money is part of that; but what else does God expect? He expects your life, your passion, your commitment. He expects every man to take up his own cross and follow Him daily. When we do not give these things to God, we are definitely robbing Him. The extraordinary thing to me is that, in most evangelical churches today, the pastors continually remind and warn their members that if they do not pay their tithes, they are robbing God. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse and it will go well with you! warned Malachi. The pastor then usually defines the storehouse as the local church. I disagree that this is Gods definition of a storehouse in our New Testament dispensation, if those churches are not making the lost a financial priority. Here is why I believe that. First, let me ask you, In this dispensation, what makes a storehouse a storehouse? If the primary purpose of the Church is to reach the lost, if it is the most evil thing on Earth to withhold the Gospel from those who have never heard, then for what purpose do you suppose God desires funds to be stored in our dispensation? Some have taught that tithes go to the church, for whatever the pastor or board determines it should do with those funds. Afterward, any offerings given can be designated for extras, which include the Kingdom-expanding work of missionaries or evangelists. Yet, if the primary purpose of each church is to increase the size of the Kingdom of God and disciple believers
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to do all they can to make that happen, then why would God want churches to reverse His priorities financially? When a church makes Gods number one job of reaching the lost the top priority for its existence, this subject of robbing God becomes a mute issue. If local churches are true New Testament storehouses, then there is no robbery in progress. We can prove this scripturally from Hebrews, chapter 7, which states that Abraham gave a tithe of his wealth to Melchizedek, an obvious type of Christ. The believing Jews, which the author of Hebrews discussed and addressed in that chapter, gave their tithes to mortal men, the priests. In our dispensation, in our Christian churches, we traditionally give our tithes to pastors who are mere mortal men, also. However, since we are the spiritual seed of Abraham, we want those mortal men to do what Christ would have them to do with our finances. Ask yourself, What did Melchizedek do with what Abraham gave him? Probably, anything he wanted to do! Doesnt it make sense that, if we give our tithes to God, so He can do what He wants to with them, He would escalate His plan of salvation toward the 36 million destined for Hell this next year, as quickly as possible? God takes note of what His children give and do not give of their lives and finances, and He takes note of the heart motivation behind why they do what they do. Sometimes, individuals and churches are blinded, not realizing their motives are wrong in the sight of God. I believe that is why so much of the New Testament admonishes the Church to repent and change. Most churches I am acquainted with feel they have done something big to give ten percent to missions. Some do not even give that much and what is given to missions is not necessarily given to reach the lost. Most missions ministry is Body-to-Body. In other words, ministers or laymen from one country travel to another country to minister to church folk there. Nonetheless, let us consider that, even where ten percent of the churchs income
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goes to reach the lost, that means ninety percent is used to take care of the Body, to make sure the Body is strong, to exercise the Body, to minister to the Body and to fix up the Body. Is this allocation of the funds of each local church pleasing in the sight of God? Please consider that I have been at this for many years and I have noticed that, in the United States, most fiscal reports of missions spending includes everything from coffeehouses to clothing programs. Some even include their Christian school expenses in their missions budget. Others are beguiled into thinking that, if they support Bible schools overseas they are reaching the lost, even if those Bible schools are not focused primarily on preparing the students to reap the harvest fields of their nation and our world. All of these things may be good and worthy projects to support, but how much of that ten percent actually ends up reaching the unreached. Let us recalculate the math this way. If a believer gives ten percent of their income to their church and that church gives ten percent to missions, then only one percent of a believers earnings go to anything remotely resembling missions, and most of that will not help reach the unreached. No wonder this job is so difficult to get done! The Church has a big fire hose pouring finances into their own needs and they use a little tiny hose to send money out to reach the lost. Several years ago, two very well-known and popular television ministers began to deal with this storehouse issue. Now mind you, neither of these ministers make reaching the lost their priority and they certainly do not focus on the unreached. However, even they experienced such a repercussion that both ministers were forced to back off and drop the subject very quickly. They had to, or they would continue to lose the finances of the churches that supported them. For this same reason, Marilyn and I usually tell the truth and nothing but the truth, but rarely the whole truth. In this book, we are doing our best to more completely tell the whole truth. There is so much at stake; we feel we must do this!
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In our School for Harvesters in Honduras, Central America, many of the students we trained want to give their lives to reach those who have never heard the Gospel. Yet, how many Honduran churches are willing to sponsor them to do so? It has been our experience that very few are, if any! Do you comprehend the weight of what I am saying? Churches should be able to, and want to, support them. However, few actually do and the truth is, they are withholding the wages of Gods laborers. In Gods way of thinking, those churches do not have a right to choose not to help qualified young ministers who have a valid plan for reaching the unreached. These well-taught-and-trained graduates are readily able to produce salvations and miracles with the Gospel and they should be out there full time, but most of them cannot be. The reason for this is that much of the Body of Christ in that nation participates in withholding the wages of the reapers. This being the case, real robbery in this New Testament dispensation occurs when wages are withheld from the reapers and laborers on the ripe fields of harvest. That is real robbery! When men and women who know how to win multitudes cannot because of financial lack, God has been robbed of precious souls. That is correct! God has been ROBBED! The most evil situation that can occur in the Body of Christ is when believers who want to give their lives to reaching the lost cannot, because of lack of finances. I can assure you that the greatest challenge harvesters face is not religious radicals, terrorists, atheists, witch doctors, dangerous roads or disease. The greatest challenge to a frontline harvest ministry is lack of sufficient finances! This is more evil and more of an atrocity than genocide or slavery. The ultimate evil on the face of the Earth is when men and women are cheated out of the Gospel and doomed to an eternity in Hell for any reason, but primarily because of the love of money. REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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CHAPTER SIX
Correctly Judging The Love of Money
Genesis 3:6-10 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, Where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid. NIV fter Adam and Even ate the forbidden fruit and heard the Lord in the garden, they hid themselves. I Timothy 2:14 states that Eve sinned because she was deceived. It amazes
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me that someone so close to God could be so easily deceived, but it happens all the time. I read a newspaper article about an 85year-old woman who was deceived by a con artist, who convinced her she had won 1.4 million dollars. It would be hers if she could just pay the taxes in four installments of $32,000 each. Needless to say, she lost $128,000 and never received 1.4 million. Just as Eve was deceived, much of the Church at large has been deceived. If local churches really believed their main job is to reach the lost, they would make it their top priority. Yet, this is not the case. How do I know? Just look at their checkbooks! In their minds, they have relegated this job to the evangelist. They do not consider it to be their job assignment, therefore, they assume that if evangelists do not have enough money, it must be because they are lacking in faith. This one erroneous attitude has forced some reapers to borrow, and almost beg, to obtain money to reach the lost. The whole mind-set of some pastors will put a big name speaker in the Ritz Carlton hotel when he is in town, while the visiting missionary must be content to sleep in sister so-and-sos house. Personally, my wife and I have not suffered at the hands of this attitude very often, so I am not pleading my case. The truth is, however, that during the time our India Harvest Plan team won 13 million, we could have won 60 million or more, if we had the finances available to us. The same is true of the Pakistan Harvest Plan. These productive harvest plans could have and still can produce ever so much more! There are also several men I have mentored, who would work together with us to do so much, if we had the money and the equipment. Individual churches may acknowledge how the Church needs to reach the lost, but they might need to change their mode of operation. If they really believe they are to follow Jesus into first and foremost becoming fishers of men who would do whatever they could to assure that as many as possible will be caught in Gospel nets their checkbooks will reflect their beliefs. If they
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really believe all authority was given to Jesus and that He is our Commander in Chief, they will do all they can to assure His orders are executed effectively. Again, allow me to use India as an example. Everything I am saying is applicable to just about any developing nation, but India I know well personally, so I am certain my examples are credible. For the past twenty years, after each India Harvest Plan miracle crusade, a church was birthed in rented facilities with the new converts from that meeting. It would have been much better if we were able to purchase land and build these Church Outreach Centers before each crusade. Unfortunately, when pastors must rent facilities in India, they are sometimes forced to move the churchs location often, when landlords succumb to the harassment of radical Hindu factions. If those churches had owned their own land and we could have built a church building after each crusade, the pastors would not be forced to change the location of the churches. Why did we not buy land? Money! The Bible states that the love of money is the root of all evil. Money itself is not evil, but the use of it can be. So can the misuse of it. I know it is not a popular thing to say, but if the Church believed that reaching the lost was an important priority, she would have as much money invested in souls as she has in other things. Why is this not the case? I suspect it is because the Church does not understand the repercussions. Believers do not really understand that the day will come when the pastors, most likely along with the members of their congregations, will face the Lord of the Harvest. It is not easy to be so blatantly honest, but I must be! Whether we are in India, Honduras, Pakistan or any other nation, our lives remain full of, and focused on, evangelism. Our graduates and those we teach in seminars know how to keep their lives full of evangelism. If they choose, they can continually go to the dark regions of their nations with the Gospel. Graduates have experienced how to produce miracle testimonies on a continual basis. Why is it, then, that so few of them, and so few believers who
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live in developed nations, want to become full-time missionaries? Oh, they may be many willing to take occasional mission trips, but believe me, a great number of those do not produce a harvest of souls. They simply take up the valuable time of missionaries. Unfortunately, mission trips seldom result in helping establish a harvest plan for the future, or even the determination to financially help missionaries or foreign ministries harvest their own nation. One reason for this is that visitors are usually not properly prepared to be effective and most are not capable of assisting or assessing the operations of ministries overseas. This is because the correct desire, understanding and training was not developed in them by effective role models, teachers or mentors. Another reason is that many churches today prefer financing members of their own church body, even if those members do not know how to effectively reap souls in a foreign nation. While it may be a fine concept to want to support someone raised up in their own church, pastors must realize they may not be the best ones to adequately train their people to reap overseas. This is usually best done by someone who has had, and is having, great soul-winning success on at least one harvest field. Beside not being correctly trained, there is another general problem in the Church today. The real honest-to-God truth is that believers in this generation are seldom prepared in their hearts to give their lives fully to the people of another nation. They simply want to have an experience. Their hearts have not been prepared to give their whole lives because of the wrong emphases, or lack of emphasis, preached to them from the pulpit since childhood. The bottom line of all this is that much of what the Church titles missions is suspect. I can be quiet about this and just try to get along with everyone, or I can continue to share what I have learned through experience to be true. Criticism without solution is folly, though, so let us continue to try to understand the error, how it came to prevail and then, establish what we can do to correct our mistakes.
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The love of money is responsible for stealing, conniving and manipulating. It divides brothers and sisters; husbands and wives. Why? The Bible states it is because one of the parties loves money. Seldom does the Church try to deal with this subject, but it is necessary to do so whenever we deal with the major hindrances to spreading the Gospel. There is no doubt that when the importance of spreading the Gospel is not the number one priority in the Church today, it is the worst tragedy on Earth. It is indeed evil!
The Focal Point of This Error

The root of a plant is necessary to maintain its life. It is actually the source of its life. When God declared boldly that the love of money was the root of all evil, He was highlighting the fact that money is the seed-bed or life-source of all evil. It is the garden where all evil is grown; and it is named the love of money. I Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. KJV This famous scripture follows Pauls warning to Timothy to remain faithful to the words of Jesus. The warning was issued while Timothy served as a pastor in an area where slavery was practiced. Some slaves were owned by Christian masters, but others had masters who were unbelievers. From what Paul reveals in the sixth chapter of I Timothy, we can ascertain that some ministers in the area were leading Christian slaves astray regarding the actions and attitudes they should exhibit toward their masters. Paul tried to bring the mind of God into the situation. He instructed those who had unbelieving masters to show them honor, so the true and living God and His plan of salvation would not be spoken against. In other words, for the sake of the (hopefully) future salvation of their masters, the slaves would do well to follow Pauls advice.
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1 Timothy 6:1-10, 17-20 Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself. Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. vs. 17-20 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. Oh Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen. NKJV
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Paul was certainly not condoning slavery, but being aware he could not change this cultural situation he, once again, focused Pastor Timothy on the prime directive. My wife and I have experienced similar frustrations regarding cultural thinking we could not change. So, like Paul, we focused on what we could change regarding the eternities of men and women. Paul kept the focal part of this instruction to Timothy on how the actions of the believing slaves could affect the eternal destination of their masters. Paul reminds Timothy about this, knowing he will admonish those he has influence over, that all of us, regardless of our station in life, bring nothing into this world and will surely take nothing out. In the United States there is a trucking company named U-Haul. They rent out trucks and trailers that make it possible for people to move their furniture from one house to another. We jokingly say, You never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer because you cant take it with you! There is no earthly vehicle that can transport our earthly wealth to wherever our human spirit will reside when we die. Through these scriptures, Paul exhorts believers to understand that monetary gain is not equivalent to godliness; and that not being content is displeasing to God. I do not believe Paul is speaking against wealth in these verses. However, he makes it clear that the rich can fall into temptation. If their love of more and more increase causes them to mistreat other people and to hoard that which is meant to work for the Kingdom of God, they have succumbed to that temptation. For example, the Book of James mentions wealthy employers who had fallen into a self-centered, greedy trap and actually held back the deserved wages of laborers who were working in the harvest fields. They even went so far as to murder innocent men for their own gains sake. James 5:1-6 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver
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are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on Earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. NIV James was probably speaking of natural harvest fields, not fields of souls. Nonetheless, these verses serve as a good analogy: wealthy Christians today fall into a similar snare by withholding the wages of those who know how to reap fields of lost people, but cannot because of lack of finances. Remember, we are talking about the inability and ineptness of the Church to take the Gospel to the entire Earths population. If churches hoard their wealth or use it to indulge themselves, without consideration of those who have never heard the Gospel, there will be eternal consequences. The rust on their riches, which they cannot see in the natural, will testify against them when they stand before the throne of the Lord of the Harvest. They will be found guilty of murdering innocent people. The Holy fire of God will have revealed what motivated pastors and their congregations to accomplish works that will burn as if they are wood, hay and stubble. Even their flesh will smell of the fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15 For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each mans work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each mans work of what sort it is. If any mans work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any mans work shall be burned,
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he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire. ASV It is a good thing for believers, pastors and church boards to reassess, from time to time, where the tithes and offerings are going; and how their decisions will be judged when their time of responsibility on this Earth is finished. Very caring and wellmeaning individuals can slip into a trap, even by way of their compassion for people. In many nations, if a man is not well-educated, it is impossible for him to get a well-paying job. Often, people from developing nations choose to become better educated in a developed country. Then, they can return to their homeland with a degree or a profession, and can obtain a good job that will assure them a prosperous and comfortable lifestyle. This is one of the worlds systems for making people successful and giving them the wealth and comfort they believe will make them happy. Sometimes, ministers embrace and focus their preaching solely on whatever thinking dominates the worlds system. They probably do this because, after preaching to, and speaking with, many people over a number of years, ministers come to realize that the primary thing most folks desire is more wealth and comfort. Whether or not they are Christians, most people feel they would be happy if they could obtain much financial gain. As a result, some ministers decide to make the majority of the people they preach to happy by catering to their desires. To do this, they must continually focus their teaching and/or the finances they collect on anything and everything but the lost! However, my wife and I have gone too far and have seen too much pain, sickness and poverty to just minister in churches for the express purpose of blessing them, in hopes they will also bless us with a good offering. Yes, of course, we want to bless them and we will often pray for the people at the end of the service, but we cannot leave without pointing out Gods need for them to help the world. After sharing the needs of other nations to an American
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congregation, one pastor said, You cannot put this load on my people. It is too heavy a load. They wont come back to church if we expect too much of them! Unfortunately, that pastor did not understand that his job assignment includes preparing his people to carry their share of the load. If he does this correctly, they will feel their load is light because they are yoked with the person and purpose of Christ. Pastors must not fail to remember how, someday, the people who make up their congregations will thank them, as they stand before the Judgment-Seat-of-Christ. II Corinthians 5:10-11 For we must all be made manifest before the judgmentseat of Christ; that each one may receive the things (done) in the body, according to what he hath done, whether (it be) good or bad. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. ASV If pastors and Bible teachers do not educate those under their influence about how the job opportunities God has made available to all believers will affect their recompense in eternity, those people will never find the slot in which they fit in Romans, chapter 10. Romans 10:8-16 But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be
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saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? NKJV Unfortunately, not all pastors and ministers believe this report. If they did, they would form and mold those they influence into harvest-priority-minded believers who take joy in making a difference in this world. Instead, some pastors often yield to the temptation of solely keeping their people happy and faithful to attend church services every Sunday. Naturally, this is a good thing to do, but not to the exclusion of keeping the responsibility and awesome opportunity in front of them at all times, as well. Once, for a short time, my wife and I pastored a church. When one woman left the congregation she said to me, I will be glad to go somewhere where they are not always telling me I have to reach the lost. I replied, Thank you. She quickly informed me, I was criticizing you. I asked her to please be sure she told everyone she saw that I continually reminded her of her responsibility and opportunity to reach the lost. My friends, if people are going to come against me for my emphasis on the lost, I can do nothing but rejoice! There is a place where everyone fits into those scriptures in Romans. There is a place where you will fit. You may be one who goes or one who sends. Both are immensely important and one cannot function or fulfill their purpose without the other. When you do find your place in Romans, chapter 10, you will be in position to have your eternity blessed. Church leaders have been beguiled, though, into failing to emphasize this fact. I encourage every Christian to pray about this and ask God
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to show you whether I am sharing the truth and whether my emphasis on the priority of this truth is correct. If you really ask and honestly receive Gods answer, you will begin rearranging every part of your life, to see to it that you are having some part in the harvest, and not just missions. Much of our missions money is not spent on harvest, but Body-to-Body ministry. Of course, there is need for that, too, but not at the expense of reaching those who would receive Christ, if they could only hear. Unfortunately, sincere people who want to give their money to harvest-producing ministries often fall prey to ministers or pastors who have learned to manipulate finances by slanting, exaggerating or lying to their donors or parishioners, in order to accomplish a financial goal. This is no different than what Ananais and Saphira did in the Book of Acts. When they dropped dead for lying to the leaders in the church about how much of their profit they were giving to the church, it was obvious they had been deceived by Satan into thinking they could lie about money, in order to achieve what they wanted. They wanted the kind of prestige that was given to Barnabus, called the Son of Consolation. This is no different from a minister today coaxing believers through false doctrine, fear or unsubstantiated promises, in order to obtain their hard-earned finances. The people of that time were placing money at the feet of the Apostle Peter, knowing the purpose they were aiding with that money. Those people understood the purpose of the Church and they knew how to make a difference! At that time, Apostles gave their all for the cause of Christ. They not only birthed converts, but they helped teach, lead and guide them. Ananais was, evidently, part of the inner working of the church, when he laid some of the profit from his land at the feet of the apostle. He and his wife, Saphira, probably had a certain amount of prestige and position already. Why then, did God judge them so harshly? I believe it was because they had not given their lives and had no intention of doing so.
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Barnabus, who had given his life to the church, also gave some money. Ananais and Saphira did what they did, to leave the illusion that they had given their lives. Barnabus followed Christ daily, but Ananais lied about their lives being committed. A great respect for commitment and truth came to the people when those two were buried and many were added to the church. The people in the area understood that the wickedness of their sin had been exposed. They had robbed God, by trying to manipulate the hearts of men through their lies. If that kind of thing happened with regularity today, the government would shut down a lot of churches because of so many deaths occurring regularly in the church! The fact that this does not happen with regularity today does not change the fact that what Ananais and Saphira did was a sin committed because they were not willing to lose their lives, but were trying to find them. It seemed important to them to establish their image and reputation. The Spirit of the Lord could not going to permit this sin to reign, just as churches were beginning to organize; for it could have successfully aborted the purpose of the church. Every Christian who gives or receives finances for the work of harvest should remember that our Father hears every word, keeps track of every decision and judges those decisions according to His thinking, not ours. If He were able to make those judgments known to the Body of Christ more clearly through leadership, perhaps there would not be so much money spent and wasted on illusionary soul-winning.
Who is Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter?

I personally know of a minister who came to Honduras to preach a crusade where mostly believers attended. He allegedly spent three million dollars on that effort. Even if the report of that monetary figure is exaggerated, nothing could have birthed the desire for this kind of ministry except the love of importance, the love of image and ego. These things are often synonymous with the love of money.
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With that amount of money, harvesters could reach the entire country of Honduras in the space of two years and probably accomplish more besides. Most of the Body of Christ, though, does not even comprehend how God judges this kind of expenditure, where there are relatively few salvations percentage-wise, in relation to the amount of money spent. One of the most evil things on Earth is the Churchs lack of understanding of how God expects the Churchs wealth to be distributed. Once again, I must sadly say that, even when finances are available, this generation is sorely lacking in committed harvestfield volunteers. Even if I had twenty million dollars with which to send every qualified young man and woman I know and totally support their work overseas how many of them would be willing to give their life to reach Asia? How many do you think would respond? How many will give up their jobs, their career goals and their dreams to change the eternal destiny of people with a different appearance, culture and way of thinking? How many are willing to face potential discomfort or even persecution? It has been my experience, most recently in American churches, that when I give an altar call for those who want to commit their lives to the mission field, few respond and even fewer respond who are quality individuals with real potential for this kind of service. While fear of the unknown can be one explanation for this lack of willingness, another reason is also the love of secure money; inasmuch as the overt desire for and the misappropriation of finances can also be considered a kind of love for money. Hoarding and manipulating finances is evil because it stops the spreading of the Gospel. How I would love to emulate the China Inland Mission, organized during the 19th century. They were able to send and support many missionaries. It took those dear pioneers of faith three years to collect enough money to send their first missionary overseas: Amy Carmichael. You see, this problem is ages old! Paul reveals this in his letters, when he applauds one church saying,
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Thank you. You are the only ones who have given to my needs. What a great, God-ordained work Paul was doing, yet only one church responded at that particular time! The same situation often exists today. Right now, the Church is so strong and wealthy that it can choose which voices it wants to hear. If pastors and people would listen to the voice of God, they would call board meetings and present the need of the world using their computer programs and charts, then determine how they are going to make a difference from that day forward. The problem is, many of them do not open themselves up to the voices of those who have knowledge about things like this. Therefore, their being willing is not enough! What I desire is to have people around me with potential. You show me potential and I will show you how to win souls, produce miracles and raise up Bible schools. You show me willingness and I will show you how to make a difference in your generation. That is why my wife and I started the School for Harvesters. Our students learned how to preach the Gospel and expect the same miracles as those that occur when my wife and I preach. Absolute novices have seen blind eyes and deaf ears open, tumors disappear and many forms of sickness healed when they preached the Gospel in public, or shared the Gospel in village homes. Through doing this, they developed confidence that it is THE MESSAGE, not THE MESSENGER, which produces those miracles. Unfortunately, it takes a great number of years to change the mind-set of believers in a developing nation and convince them of their responsibility to give to those who want to harvest full time. It also takes time to convince believers in those nations that they hold they key to their eternal rewards. Some obey immediately upon hearing the truth, but for the majority, the devil is always right there willing to deceive, discourage, divert or destroy and he does so and often succeeds. Therefore, much of the wealth of the Church has been withheld from the laborers in developing nations, as well as developed nations.
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This is wicked! Actually, we could say it is, in some cases, innocent wickedness. The churches do not mean to be wicked. It is much like someone who accidentally kills another person in an automobile accident. They can be indicted in a court of law for manslaughter, but not for first or second-degree murder. Vehicular manslaughter is not first-degree murder. People guilty of vehicular manslaughter did not leave their house one day and predetermine to kill an old woman with their car. Yet, they were responsible for her death. Likewise, the Church is often guilty of this same kind of involuntary manslaughter. Believers do not purpose in their hearts to send people to Hell. Some give only to certain missions-oriented ministries connected with their group or denomination. However, if those leaders have not assessed who is reaching the unreached and who is not, they may be guilty of the love of money. They love to choose where they feel the priority emphasis for their churchs finances should be, instead of putting a priority on what Christ said was important! Some would judge my kind of thinking as narrow-minded and say that evangelists can only see one thing; they cannot see the whole picture. I adamantly disagree! It is they who cannot see the whole picture that God painted when Christ rose from the dead and decreed His Fathers will! Naturally, some churches have all they can do to keep the bills paid and the doors open. Although it will take time for them to change their priorities financially, it can be done! A new church, or one who is not under threat of closure, should begin by giving no less than ten percent to truly effective harvest plans and ministries. To withhold finances from these viable works, who can do little without the compassion of the church manifesting financially toward the lost, is to be condemned guilty of the love of money. Here is how those who withhold finances from those reaching the lost are guilty of the love of money. The Greek word for root is rhiza. It means the beginning of. If the love of money is
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the beginning of all kinds of evil, and God is certainly aware of all the atrocities on the Earth, then this whole issue pertains to more than just this life, in Gods way of thinking. The primary passion of God is to prepare people for eternity, so He can get His creation back in the greatest measure of fullness. The love of money then, obviously, hinders Gods primary passion. I promise you that, in the sight of God, the most evil thing on the Earth is that the Gospel is not being spread sufficiently to the unreached. We could easily call it involuntary manslaughter when the Body of Christ does not rise up and embrace the fact that the main job and purpose of the Church is to reach the lost. To God, hindering the reaching of the lost is more of an atrocity than genocide and slavery. The ultimate evil is when men are cheated out of the Gospel for whatever reason, which usually revolves in some way around the kind of love for money that is the beginning of evil. I did not determine this. God did. He said that! The word for evil in Greek is kakos. It has many synonyms: deprived, injurious, bad, harmful, noisome, wicked and covetous (fond of silver). (Strongs) Evil deprives men of the Gospel, which is calamitous to their lives and eternities. The word money is from the Greek word phileo: to love and arguros: silver. To love silver is to be covetous or avaricious, which is harmful to mankind. Avarice is the lustful desire to obtain and hoard wealth. There are still other synonyms though for love of money. One of them is evident when believers or ministers do not make correct decisions, in the sight of God, because they covet fame, fortune or the chief seat. REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Right and Wrong Attitudes
uch of what Paul wrote in his epistles was intended to keep churches in line and focused, so they would continue to do all they could to spread the Good News about Jesus Christ. At one point, he admonished them by explaining how he is a prisoner of the Gospel. In other words, Pauls commitment to who and what Christ was, and the job He gave the Church to accomplish, held him like a prisoner. Rome did not hold him prisoner. He may have written those epistles from a place where he was physically restricted, but it was the Gospel that held him prisoner! Nonetheless, in spite of Pauls example and eloquence, some turned a deaf ear. In II Timothy 4:10 Paul mentions such a man. His name was Demas; and he was a minister whom Paul had considered faithful.
Loving the Preeminence

II Timothy 4:9-10
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Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. NIV Previously, Paul had spoken of Demas as a co-worker in the faith. He now sadly reports how Demas physically left him. The implication is that Demas left Paul because of a doctrinal or emphasis difference. Here is one more example of Paul reflecting on how the love of money affects the primary job of the Church or a church. Demas left because he loved this world. Another translation states, he loved this present life. As a result, Paul clearly judged Demas to be a man who had erred, gone astray. Perhaps young Demas had become embarrassed because Paul was not moving in the top circles or ministering and staying in prestigious places. The Bible does not give specifics, so this is only a supposition. Perhaps he loved ministry most when he was celebrated or could do his own thing whenever he chose. It always amazes me how, when people make a decision to move away from what is physically difficult or low in esteem, they often say their reason for doing so is, God has guided me! At times, I feel compassion for those who give up on what they know to be the right way, but once again, I know it often has to do with finances. Every believer must decide what to do with available finances. What they decide directly affects those who will or will not be helped by them. When the necessary finances for evangelistic work are difficult to obtain, some ministers simply give up. They succumb to the never-ending pressure of standing in faith for the money needed to live decently and work for the Lord overseas, in areas where they might suffer some physical discomfort. When some young ministers give up, they must suspect they are not making the right decision in doing so, but they feel they have no choice because they do not really believe the Body of
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Christ will ever self-correct enough to provide what they need to live and to win souls. Others make similar decisions, but their motives are totally rotten. If I do not state the truth as accurately as I can, then I become part of the deception. Please remember this as you read the following story. At separate times, two evangelists contacted me after seeing photos of the very large crowds from our India Harvest Plan crusades. They asked for our help and we were anxious to help them. India needs thousands of harvesters and, at that time, it was still possible to hold large meetings without legal restriction or radical persecution! These ministers were not familiar with India and they wanted to crusade in major cities, where many crusades have already been held. Crusading in major cities does some good, but often the majority of the attendees are already born-again. After explaining to these men that 95% of the Gospel work done in India takes place in the cities, but 85% of the population lives in villages, I encouraged them to crusade in population-hub villages, just as we did, where their crowds would also be large, but consist of mainly unreached villagers. So, they had to decide whether to have crusades in major cities, drawing a crowd of mainly believers, where they could stay in a 5-star hotel; or suffer the physical difficulties of traveling to, and staying in, a populationhub village. Both ministers replied, No, we want to go to the major cities! Without going into detail, let me state that their reasons for wanting to do so were despicable. One of them went so far as to say he would only crusade on the same field where Brother Big Name had crusaded, but he must have a bigger crowd! God help us all, if this is the attitude of todays evangelists who have a popular enough profile in the Body of Christ to pull this kind of stunt! It is no wonder the Body of Christ is confused! What the Body of Christ is largely unaware of is that, when a large city crusade takes place, in order for that crusade to be
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of any size at all, where impressive reports can be taken back to the States, a tremendous amount of money must be invested. A large team traveling together, including a camera crew and equipment, is usual. It is also necessary to use expensive means of advertising in the cities. None of this is necessarily wrong, but when you consider that relatively few, percentage wise, will be saved, because the crowd will be mostly believers who came from cooperating churches, it grieves me. I cannot help but think that, if the same amount of money had been spent where the greater need is, many more thousands of people could be netted into the Kingdom. However, there are probably some countries where holding major-city miracle meetings will gather in many who have never heard the truth. Still, I refer to ministries who will not consider the need of a nation above their motives as sucker-limb ministries. They suck money out of the Body of Christ, but just like the sucker-limb on a rose bush, they do not produce. While Paul instructed us to rejoice when people are saved, regardless of the preachers motive, still the Church must understand that the overall foundation of failure is the love of money, which is synonymous with love for prestige or acceptance. The devil is the master of deception and he convinces us that we must always keep people on our side, to keep them from leaving our ministries or our churches. At times, this deception involves embracing certain doctrines because they are convenient. The doctrines that keep people happy and attending, yet obviously hinder the harvest, cannot be found in the Bible. Of course, there is much truth in the Word of God that should serve to sufficiently keep the Body of Christ happy, but sometimes believers refuse to hear the WHOLE truth. Thank God for those in the Body of Christ who remain hopeful that they will be able to do more in the future, when more money will be available to them with which they can fulfill Christs final and most important command: to preach the Gospel to every
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human being alive, in every generation. I regret to say, though, that some ministers are actually preaching how the time for a great harvest of souls will come in the future, after Christians receive the wealth of the wicked. Of course, the more money the Church has to do the job the better job we can do, but what these ministers propagate has simply been one more attempt to unplug pastors and believers from recognizing the urgent need to harvest now. Coincidentally, some of the ministers who have encouraged us to believe God for the wealth of the wicked have probably lived mainly off the honorariums of the righteous. If the time ever comes when they live off the wealth of the wicked and use plenty of that wealth to harvest souls into the Kingdom of God, then I may listen to them more carefully and embrace what they preach. The truth is the prime directive of the Church could be accomplished without the wealth of the wicked. There are many large churches today that are quite wealthy. Some have more money invested in chandeliers and PA systems than many church buildings cost. This in itself is certainly not evil. My point is simply that the Body of Christ has a great deal of money and, if they choose to use it wisely, pastors can designate their finances to build beautiful and functional earthly structures, while at the same time store up treasures for their congregations eternity. Some ministers, however, yield to the wrong temptations and, in the words of Paul, they actually stray from the faith.
Some stray from the faith

I Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. NKJV What did Paul mean when he stated some have strayed from the faith? I do not believe he meant that those in error left
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Christianity or faith in Jesus Christ. The faith Paul spoke of most often was faith in the Gospel and its affect on the lost. He saw how those who allowed greed to guide them would naturally leave the importance of the message. When those who love money stray from the faith, it is because they have been seduced. However, James 1:14 explains that men sin when they are drawn away of their own lust and enticed. Therefore, the basic reason they allowed themselves to be seduced lies within their own carnal desires. I Timothy 6:10 seems to have multiple implications, as is sometimes the case in Pauls writings. I do not believe he was only speaking about greed for money in this verse, but was also referring to a greedy lust for prestige and position. Paul attempted to help Pastor Timothy keep his flock from likewise straying from the faith, from drifting away from the purpose of the Church. Paul tried to keep the churches he apostled focused on the words of Jesus: Follow Me. I will make you fishers of men! Take up your cross and follow me daily! Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature! The intensity of these commands is quite obvious, yet in recent generations, some of the Church has focused on, and argued over, unimportant things, like which kind of baptism is best: sprinkling, immersion or wiping with a wet cloth! Christians can waste valuable time arguing over the silliest things. When Jesus told the disciples to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, baptism was not the large issue. He wanted the disciples to know the importance of immersing believers in understanding and knowledge about the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Christ understood that if converts did not know these things, something would seduce them away from the simplicity of the task God assigned the Church. Often, it is the desire for prestige that will cause this seduction. Unfortunately, sometimes those who love to please people and get along with everybody and never upset anyone can also be
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easily persuaded to leave the simplicity of the power of the Gospel. Take, for example, the fact that Demas must have compromised in some area because Paul was literally forced out of Thessalonica, yet Demas felt he would be accepted there. Demas probably tempered his message to please the people. I do not believe Demas went to nightclubs and started chasing women; yet, he deserted Paul both physically and in his emphasis of the Word of God. Demas probably loved popularity and prestige, but Paul was focused on the need of the people and what he needed to reach them. Demas did not like to sense those needs. He wanted to escape from them and go where he could be happy. You might wonder why, if Paul had such great faith, he would not just look up into Heaven and command every need to be met? A ministers faith for finances alone, most of the time, does not appear to be sufficient. The way God set things up, He usually requires compassionate, or at least obedient, people to supply what the minister needs. For whatever reason Paul wanted his coat, he had to ask Timothy to bring it. The coat could not be commanded into his presence, then suddenly appear! Humorously, I have actually heard preachers declare that Paul did not understand faith the way they do. Let me assure you that Paul understood faith! However, Paul did need Timothy to come to him because Demas had forsaken him, having loved this present world. Demas deserted the faith by loving an obtainable posture for the wrong reasons. He loved what he could have now, today. He was not willing to look to eternity. He wanted all his reward now! Of course, any minister who says they do not enjoy the accolades of others is lying. We all like to hear people compliment our sermons, but it is wrong for us to let that motivate our sermons. If we love this present world in which we live, we will be more concerned about what people think than what God thinks. Then, everything we do will be done to obtain something or to create image. Our eyes will stray from eternity and from caring for the eternal destiny of the human race. If either ministers or believers focus mainly on what they can obtain, they will leave the purpose they will
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leave the job. It is the evil of all evils! I sometimes sense the Demases of this world, those who desire acclaim and learn to be promoters of themselves, feel sorry for me; but do not ever feel sorry for me! I am one happy old man! My wife is one happy lady, because we are in the middle of what God wants done. Even if the devil were to succeed in stopping what we are doing (which he will not) he could never take away what we have done. Sure, we would like to avoid more physical, emotional and financial pressure, but we will never leave the purpose.
The attitude that pleases our Father

Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, mentioned quite a few people by name in his epistles, including several of whom he does not speak favorably. Considering this, we should all feel thankful whenever we see a group of people following a minister who understands the importance and priority of harvest. Yet, because Paul shared his difficulties with us along with his explanations of why people did what they did we are able to understand how God views the love of money and how it affects our favor regarding the work of the Gospel. Evidently, some of the ministers in Asia did not like Pauls constant corrective prominence or the emphasis he placed on the Gospel, for it affected the lives of the people they influenced. After all, in their humanity, those ministers wanted the people to look up to them. Some of them were probably tired of hearing so much about Paul because his sandals were too big for them to walk in; so they would have to discredit his memory, in order to gain the preeminence. If you were one of those ministers, and you wanted to turn the affection of the people toward yourself, how would you do that? You could not accuse Paul of immorality and you certainly could not accuse him of bad doctrine, because you would be no match for him doctrinally. So, what did they do? We can see what some of them did through Pauls writing to the church in Corinth. It will enlighten us tremendously to read the following passage in its entirety.
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I Corinthians 4:1-5:1 So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of mens hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, Do not go beyond what is written. Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the Earth,
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the refuse of the world. I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the Gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit? NIV When the Corinthian Church began turning away from the passion for souls, Paul knew he must at least attempt to help set them back on course. So, before he sent Timothy to them, he wrote the congregation a letter. In it, he asked why they felt they could glory in their wealth and comfort, as if they had not received the Gospel or the truth of what God required of them from him? He asked them what they were so puffed up about; and reminded them it was God who birthed that work and gave them everything they have. They had been Pauls students, but now they were so full and rich, they were reigning (in their minds) as kings without consideration for either Paul or the job of the church. He did seem to be a little sarcastic, but evidently he felt it appropriate, in order for the arrogant ones to hear him. He needed to remind them from whence they came and how they arrived at their present state. Paul also mentioned how God seemed to have made apostles a
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spectacle to the world. In some ways, that has not changed much. Occasionally, the leaders of a wealthy church appear to look down on those who get their hands dirty in the slimy parts of the world. They throw them a mere pittance with which to do their work. Paul did not receive that kind of rubbish-attitude very well. He shot right back at them and explained that he was the one who had given up everything, but they were now the ones who were rich. They wrongly considered him a fool for Christs sake, and foolishly considered themselves wise. He continued on to say that, because he was sometimes physically weak, financially needy or experiencing difficulties for the Gospels sake, some believers felt he must have opened the door to the devil. Yet, Paul knew the truth and he was despised, while they honored themselves. What a shame it was that, at times, he even had to work hard with his own hands to obtain enough money. To some, Paul seemed to be the scum of the Earth. How did those self-centered ministers succeed at turning the hearts of the people? They must have stuck pretty close to the truth, knowing their congregations were not sharp enough to pick up the deception, or their motivation for emphasizing what they were teaching. Perhaps they subtly injected into their message a Hath God said? Is it really the responsibility of all of us to reach the lost? Is it not possible that God has a different purpose for our church? Just asking these kinds of questions is itself deceptive and can sadly bring Heavens eternal consequences upon the congregation. This is why the greatest injury to the Kingdom of God usually comes from within the Kingdom itself. There will be always be heretics and traitors rise up within the camp because they want a position of authority. They do not want to hear that Brother Harvester said this or that. They want the place of esteem, just like the Pharisees did who killed Jesus. Why else would those mentored by Paul shoot down his words? It had to be selfishness and greed that caused them to do
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what they did. When Paul accused those ministers of speaking perverse things, he simply meant they would distort or twist or corrupt the truth. That is the definition of the word perverse. Those ministers probably turned the truth just a little, to relieve the people of the responsibility Pauls words placed upon them. It is difficult to believe the Apostle Paul had to chasten this church; however, it is not only obvious that his reproof was necessary, but his motives for doing so were pure. He was trying to protect the faith and stop the evil in that church! Yes, they were wealthy and had done good works, but they had left the purpose of the Gospel. All of Asia followed suit. Still, Paul did all he could to get them to return to Gods main purpose for the Church. I Corinthians 3:1-6 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not mere men? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe as the Lord has assigned to each his task. NIV What does the reference to meat mean in this passage? Do you remember what Jesus told His disciples after he ministered to the woman at the well? He said, I have meat to eat that you know not of. Winning this woman was His meat. Witnessing in a way that brought her whole town from darkness to light was His meat. Both Jesus and Paul knew the Gospel was the source of power and the source of what God considered successful. The tendency of people who are milk-drinkers spiritually, meaning they only consume whatever in the Word of God helps and blesses them, is to focus on themselves. Therefore, they are
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considered carnal. In their carnality they envy and then cause strife, bringing every kind of evil into the church. Paul said when they did this, and argued over which minister was more prestigious, they were walking as mere men, not men inhabited by the Spirit of God. Could Paul have made it any clearer that we are not to glorify men, but are instead to glorify the message that exalts the Son of God? Why do more leaders within the Church today not apply the words of Paul to themselves? Why do so many so often choose to overlook these important passages of scripture? One of the reasons, I believe, is that they do not comprehend how they are altering their future and their eternity. Paul understood this when he admonished the Corinthians earlier in this epistle. I Corinthians 3:8-21 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are Gods husbandry, ye are Gods building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every mans work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is. If any mans work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any mans work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall
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God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours KJV Could Paul have made Gods plan for eternal recompense any clearer? No! These verses make it crystal clear that, if believers or ministers build upon their foundation of salvation with the glory of men and not the glory of God, His Gospel and His purpose, there will be an awfully large bonfire on Judgment Day, when they stand before the throne of God. Why is it, then, that although these scriptures are vividly clear, some ministers seem to place no importance upon them? One of the answers to this question is that some pastors want their people to be totally dependent upon them spiritually. I once knew of a pastor with a fairly large church, who told the people that if they stepped outside of his covering, demons would attack them and destroy them. Naturally, some of the people who were ignorant of the Word of God clung tightly to him out of fear. The pastors real purpose for this kind of nonsensical intimidation is that he did not want them to jump the fence and pay their tithes elsewhere. Remember that the love of money is the root of all evil. I personally do not know how ministers live with themselves when they put this kind of fear into the hearts of sincere people. Similarly, when a preacher promises, Everyone here today who gives $1,000 will be blessed, while alluding to the possibility that, if they do not give, they will be cursed, they are on shaky ground. Because the love of money is the root of all evil, ministers can just as easily keep people in bondage with false promises in order to keep their finances coming as they can with fearful intimidation. They offer a kind of protection service. They operate
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like the Mafia: pay me and I will protect the business! If believers remain faithful and hear sound teaching, they will learn to walk in victory over the works of the devil. It is the message that is the protectorate, not the preacher. How unfortunate that Paul had to point out to those who had been faithful, how they laughed at him, made fun of him and were ashamed of him because of his many difficulties for the Gospels sake. Paul was not dismayed by their foolishness for he understood they were the ones who had left their first love! Ever since Demas left, others in the Church have been leaving for the same reason. They love this present world. I thank God for good pastors who teach the truth and are honest with people. They would never tie money into Gods willingness to heal because that kind of manipulation places the faith of the people in the wrong thing. The Gospel is the power of God to their salvation and healing. Do you understand? Honesty is the path to power! My friends, even if everyone else goes the way of the world and has no confidence in themselves or the Word of the Lord, my wife and I can live peacefully with ourselves. We have chosen not to be hypocrites and not to con the people. It is wrong for ministers to compromise their integrity and pressure people. We should all take care not to be sucked into this kind of evil. I do not ever want Paul to say from the portals of Heaven, There go Jerry and Marilyn ODell. They, too, have left me and Christs purpose. They are drawing people away with their message. I do not want to be renamed in Heaven, Jerry Demas ODell! REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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CHAPTER EIGHT
Errors of the Early Church repeated today

Revelations 2:1-7 To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right
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to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. NIV According to church historians, this letter was dictated by our Lord approximately thirty-five years after the church in Ephesus began. The fundamental doctrines of that church were taught by Paul, as is explained within Acts, chapters 19 and 20. Paul had debated the Word of God with those Ephesians day and night for three years. Those he mentored were there as he shared the Gospel publicly and house-to-house during those years until every person in the province of Asia heard the Good News. From the beginning, the Church in Ephesus understood the power of the Gospel, the urgency of Christs Commission and their role in helping fulfill it. Thirty-five years later, when Christ wrote this letter to the pastor, He praised him for several things. His congregation was patient, could not bear evil, refused hypocrisy and knew how to judge if a man was honest and whether or not his teachings were false. They had not abandoned their knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ and they had not fainted in their many labors for Him. Nevertheless, God had something against them because they had left their first love. Some theologians offer this explanation: they were no longer loving Jesus as they should. However, this explanation alone cannot be correct. The letter states clearly how they did all they did out of love for Jesus. What they had left behind, however, is the purpose for which Christ came. At its inception, the Church in Ephesus had been focused on the lost. This was no longer their focus and priority. God so loved all of us that He gave His Son to die for all of us. However, even when we understand how to cast out devils and heal the sick, He would still say to us, Depart from Me! if our works do not stem from what Jesus called the first love. It is a serious thing to submit yourself to a church that does not do what they are capable of doing to reach the lost. Jesus said, If you love Me, you will obey what I command! (John 14:15 NIV) While Jesus
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gave a lot of commands and instructions, His primary command or commission to the Church is to reach the lost. In Gods Kingdom, evangelists are to rightfully obtain help from churches. This is the way God intended for His Commission to be fulfilled. It never ceases to amaze me, unfortunately, how a great man of faith like Paul had to declare that he had needs because others had forsaken him, having loved something other than Christs first love. Why is it so difficult for human beings to first consider those who are on their way to a certain Christless eternity ahead of themselves? Why is it so difficult for believers to love the lost? I believe it is partly because human beings do not like to submit their will to God completely and loving the lost requires complete submission to Heavens throne. Jesus submitted Himself to death because He was willing to forsake the glories of Heaven for the sake of the lost. Paul submitted himself as a slave to the Gospel because he understood Gods love for the lost. He made it clear that he was a debtor to the Jews, the Greeks and the Barbarians. So often, believers feel they are really giving God something great when they give Him their lives. They feel God is lucky just to have them serving Him in any capacity, but this attitude in not Christlike. Christ gave His all for all! Likewise, Paul explained he was a debtor to everyone because the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone. However, it is possible to understand the power of the Gospel, yet not consider yourself a debtor to it, just as Demas did not. Some churches today have some repenting to do! Failure to acknowledge how they are guilty of the same sin the church in Ephesus committed of leaving Christs number one priority and, instead, considering other things more important than reaching the unreached will still result in a severe consequence. Their candlesticks will be removed. This might mean little to present day believers who simply flip the switch connected to an electric light bulb, whenever they want to light up a dark area. However,
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in Bible days, in order to see in the dark, it was necessary to light candles and set them in some sort of a holder. Candlelight is used in the Bible as an analogy for the Light of the Gospel, so when Jesus threatened to remove the churchs candlestick, He was basically saying that since they were no longer the Light of the world because they did not spread the Gospel they had no need of a candleholder. My guess is that any church our Lord does not consider the Light of the world is not considered a church by Heavens standards, for they are not doing what they were created to do. The agape love that Jesus and Paul had for the lost requires action. God is still expecting that love-action from His people and churches. Loving the lost is not a heartthrob-kind of love. It is not an emotional experience, like when you look at the moon with your wife and feel love in your heart. No, this type of love sent Jesus to the Cross and will send you and/or your money to the lost. You can love many other things, but this love must be foremost in order of importance. Please understand, though, that you will never operate with this kind of love unless you comprehend how the greatest grief God experiences is when people die without a chance to hear about the sacrifice He and His Son made for them. Operating in this type of love is a decision. When Christ accused the Ephesian church of forsaking her first love, He meant clearly that this was their choice. The definition for the Greek word translated forsake is: to yield up. They had chosen to give up their first love. Christian church leaders today must likewise choose what they will emphasize. Some have loved and exalted mainly the currently popular emphases in their circles of Christianity, but really have not meant to deemphasize what is most important to God. Most of these ministers are fine men and women who do good works; but they have been deceived! Understanding this takes us right back to Hath God said? When Satan tempts them, he tempts them with questions like this:
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Did He really mean whosoever believes will be saved? Did He really mean He gave His life for everyone? Did he really mean we should go into the whole world? Did He really mean for us to spend our time, money and energy going to pagans whose ancestors rejected Christ? Did He really mean we personally should be involved in some way? When believers, churches or ministers yield to the temptations of Satan mentally, their actions will show they have left the first love. Of course, many believers, churches and ministers have never embraced that first love in the first place, so they have not been guilty of leaving it. What they are guilty of is not taking the time to realize and comprehend the New Testament emphasis so clearly plotted out for us from Matthew to Revelation. It is most likely for this reason that teachers will receive a greater condemnation. (James 3:1) While they may teach with confidence their interpretation of the Word of God, if they have never understood the primary reason for teaching the Bible is to influence the lives of believers, so they can be effective harvesters ministers of reconciliation then whatever they teach will lack proper focus. Regardless of the subjects my wife and I teach, we always ask ourselves, Why is this important? How will understanding this subject help or affect their ability to win souls? Then, we always make certain those we instruct understand the answers to those questions before the classes are completed. All ministry gifts should work together for one goal; each of them supplying what is necessary to fulfill the Great Commission.
Reminding This Generation

The Book of Exodus tells us that when the Israelites finally arrived in the promise land, God instructed them to pile up stones and make an altar. He knew that someday, their children would look at that altar and ask, What do these stones mean? God told them to tell their children how He delivered them from bondage in Egypt and parted the Red Sea, so they could cross over on dry ground and escape from their enemies.
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In like manner, we remember the Cross and the shed blood of Jesus when we take Communion. We have been instructed, as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of Me. Are we going to argue, then, over whether to use bread or wafers and enter into squabbles about this? No, of course not! We could use hamburger buns, if necessary, because we do not actually believe these elements themselves become the blood and body of Christ. We are instead remembering that His blood was shed for the world and His body was broken for our health and for the health of those who would believe, if only they could hear the truth. So, what is the purpose of Communion? It is to remember the first love! Remembering the purpose of Communion is just one small example of relating what we teach to the purpose of Christ. The truth is, the spiritual victories we are enjoying in our generation have occurred because teachers and preachers in the past remembered to relate their teachings or sermons to the works of Christ and why He did them. Jesus is not at all pleased when we do not remember to do this! Let us not forget that He threatened the Ephesian believers with the removal of their candlestick, when they were no longer a light set on a hill. In Matthew 5:15, Jesus said, Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. (KJV) That bushel can be made up of the substance of good works and great projects, but if it hides the primary purpose of the Church, then it becomes an enemy of the harvest. Although the Ephesian church had done wonderful things in the past, they had departed from the primary purpose for which they existed. Demas departed from Paul and from Christs purpose for his ministry gift. Please understand that, although both the Church in Ephesus and Demas left the purpose, they would never have denied God. Neither would they deny the truth that Jesus was the Son of God and healed the sick. Yet, God said they left Him. While they worked hard for God and still claimed to love God, they were
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no longer the Light of the world. No one can place a candle in a dark room without dissipating total darkness. Although you may sometimes feel like you are simply one small candle - not a halogen spotlight - this can change. By faith and obedience, you can become a lantern, then a lamp and then a chandelier. Together we can light up the world in which we live. Let us not leave the purpose Paul emphasized! There is no doubt that the Church in Ephesus had sinned. Her sins were not sins of commission, but of omission. The leadership had changed their mind-set and priorities. There is nothing any more evil than changing the emphasis of a church away from the first love because it stops the Gospel from being spread to the ends of the world.
Repent, or else!
If you do not think God really intends for us to believe that the number one job of the Church is to reach the lost, it is time to repent. When God told the Ephesian church to repent, the Greek word used was metaneo. It means: to think differently, to reconsider. Christ actually threatened the church. If they refused to think differently, He would remove their candlestick and they would not even be considered a church in Heaven! If they are not considered a church, then how would God feel about his children giving their tithes and offerings into this non-church entity? We are living in the same dispensation as did the Church in Ephesus. During this Church Age, God no longer lives in temples made with the hands of men, but He dwells within believers. They have become His temple and the place from which God will express Himself. Why, then, should we even attend church? There are several reasons, of course, but one of the best reasons for attending a church faithfully is to be bound together with others for a common purpose. When believers are in submission to a pastor who understands Gods number one priority, they are able to accomplish together so much more than one individual
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can alone. Please understand that I am not saying a church should not accomplish other good works, such as feeding the hungry, bringing medicine to the sick overseas or aiding widows and orphans. These are good things to do, and my wife and I have done them. Of course, when we have opportunity to do so, we (and the teams we work with) usually also share the Gospel with the people we are helping. When peoples bellies are hungry, food is important; but feeding hungry people and doing other good works is not considered the first love. It is not scriptural for a church to be based solely on philanthropy and humanitarian aide, even though there are many needy places in our world. How can churches feed all of them continually? That would be difficult! Beside this, there are many organizations, both secular and religious, totally dedicated to doing these good and kind works. There are too few, however, bringing the Light of the world the Bread of Life to these impoverished, needy and condemned folks. I would never make light of the fact that there is great need for humanitarian help in many nations. I have been in several countries where bone growth among children is stunted because of malnutrition, which often also affects the mental capacity of the children. They have great need and, while Jesus did not ask the Ephesians to stop helping the needy, He did demand they repent for leaving the first love. Jesus is still demanding this same thing today. He is also longing to provide help for those who are laboring on massive harvest fields. This is one major way in which churches can provide the help Jesus longs to give! If they are truly repentant, it will show up in their year-end financial statement. Churches often find themselves in a quandary, however, because there are so many ministries who need financial support. Each one seems to believe they are doing what God wants them to do with their lives, and pastors must decide which ministry is
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most worthy of their congregations offerings. Unfortunately, this competition for money is another avenue through which Satan is able to deceive good men and women. My wife and I were so grieved, as we watched this affect the ministry of a good preacher at a missions conference. Marilyn and I had preached a message one evening titled, First Love, the Key to Heavens Rewards and the people were moved and blessed by it. The purpose of the conference was to help focus those in attendance on the lost of our generation and what they could do to help. However, the next night, another minister of greater prestige and yearly income began his sermon by saying, Last night, when the ODells presented their message, the Lord spoke to me and said, Go back to your first love. My first love was feeding the hungry in famine areas and I am going to do more of that. After making a few more statements, he completely removed the responsibility for the reaching the lost off the people we had preached to, by insinuating that the first love was different for each individual in the Body of Christ! Certainly, I am no one to judge what God has told this man to do with his life and finances. If he is to feed the hungry, that is fine. However, it is not fine for him to do just exactly what Paul explained those ministers had done to him and might do to us! Because this minister had a firmer relationship with the pastor, none of the other ministers present at this conference were even open to a casual discussion about this disagreement. It certainly helps assuage our hearts for my wife and I to know that even the Apostle Paul had to endure this kind of public display of perverse manipulation of the Word. However, our experiences have also made us wiser! We are so much more aware of how easy it is for eager, zealous young churches to be wrongly turned, when they receive men who encourage them to relax and enjoy the experience of total freedom in choosing what to do with the money God has placed in their hands. Still, when they do this, they enter into the most evil work on
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the face of the Earth and have robbed God of the most important treasure He has on this Earth. They rob Him of the Good News that Jesus died on Calvary. It is the pearl of great price and they throw it into the fire. This pearl is a treasure not made with mans hands, but a treasure that will enlighten the darkest hearts of men. This great treasure, placed into our keeping, is not the intellect to work Einsteins formulas. Thank God for intellect, but the greater treasure in a human being is the knowledge that it is Christ in us, the hope of glory, who is the hope of salvation and peace for the world.
The Church in Ephesus Began on the Right Premise

Before closing this chapter, I must state clearly again that, when churches reject the priority of Heavens first love, it is usually because they want to maintain the freedom to emphasize whatever they want and do whatever they feel to do with the congregations money. If I must preach to a congregation where I believe the leadership has this mind-set, then I must determine what to do about it, if anything, from the pulpit. My philosophy is to always do my best to preach in a way that does not undercut a pastors beliefs. Yet, how can I accomplish this and not compromise our stand? Since I am not the apostle of these churches, sometimes we just tell them about our works overseas and do our best to bless them, without saying anything that would sound like a correction. This keeps the door of opportunity open with that church, with hope that eventually we can have an influence on the pastor. However, this is not the way Christ handled these churches. Although He did allow them to go about their business as they chose for awhile, He did not compromise with the church in Ephesus or any of the other churches, when He was finally able to correct them in the Revelation letters. He told the Laodicean church: You say, I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become
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rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
(Rev. 3:17-19 NIV)
We ministers, and particularly evangelists, must be considerate when we see a people doing all they know to do, if what they are doing is the result of what they have learned from their role models and teachers. If sincere believers attend a church whose emphasis is similar to the Laodicean church, they will be wrongly influenced in spite of their sincerity. My wife and I do our best in these situations to keep from turning the pastor and people off with harshness. Instead, we try to present the truth with patience and love. Often, they will, at least for that moment, see the truth and desire to change their direction and priorities. Sometimes, however, even if they are not hard-hearted, pastors may soon yield once again to the pressure of circumstances, or to those steering them, or to superiors influencing them. During the years that Paul preached the Gospel in the province of Asia, and the church at Ephesus was in its infancy, at least thirteen cities heard the simple Gospel. Paul and his team absolutely got the job done correctly! Perhaps everyone did not receive salvation, but every single person heard the truth about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This was a tremendous thing to accomplish in such a short time and it should be the Churchs example today, especially overseas where there are still so many who have never heard! Individuals and churches should be supporting those who are accomplishing similar feats, with harvest plans they have set in motion. If they are not and if they are also not reaching out in their own community and nation, to the best of their ability then they are considered as guilty as the churches in Ephesus or Laodicea. REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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CHAPTER NINE
Honest Repentance Results in Change

undreds of years ago, it was commonly accepted that, if we traveled too far out on the ocean, eventually we would fall off the edge of the world. Without modern technology available at that time, I can certainly understand why they thought this was true. Not many centuries ago, doctors bled patients who suffered from high blood pressure. They almost killed the first president of the United States of America, George Washington, because the leeches used to bleed him removed so much blood! The most experienced medical people of that time used the best of their knowledge and, even though it was wrong, I can certainly understand why they believed they were correct. Once they knew better, however, they changed their method of treatment. Similarly, when a patient suffered from tuberculosis years ago, they were locked up in a room and not allowed outdoors. Once again, when the medical community gained more insight into this disease, they changed their approach to a cure. Why?
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Because doctors were willing to change what they believed to be absolute! Likewise, as the current Church understands more about the need for the Gospel, the job of the Church and how to go about doing it in our generation, they will feel heavenly pressure to make some very important changes. Believers will instinctively want to give more of their hard-earned money, but they should insist on knowing what that money is producing for the Lord. They should observe ministries intelligently! When you become acquainted with a ministry that is involved overseas, find out exactly what they accomplish. Ask them if there is a harvest element to what they do. Is their Bible school or church harvest-minded? Is reaching the lost a major emphasis, or do they just teach the Word? If they are not imparting a harvest mentality into their students or congregations, they have allowed the devil to convince them that what they are doing is sufficient. Unfortunately, they will also do their best to convince churches and believers who are potential donors that this is enough. They may do it innocently, since many sincere missionaries simply do not know any better. Much of what the Church has done (or not done) is unintentionally wrong, yet it is still a mistake! If I accidentally give you my phone number incorrectly, this would be considered a mistake, not a lie. However, although it is a genuine mistake, you will still not be able to use that phone number to reach me. The Church must become sorry they did not understand that everything accomplished by all church offices and ministry gifts happens for one specific overall goal. Consider how everything that occurs in an auto factory happens for one reason, with one goal in mind: to produce a car. Every laborer involved from the inventor, to the accountant, the steel worker and the mechanic works together for the focused goal of producing a car. At the end of the assembly line, they never end up with a lamp. Automobile factories do not make lamps. Neither will a sofa ever be produced in an auto factory. Everything that happens in the Church is supposed to occur
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for one reason: to win the lost. Although many different people fulfill many different jobs in their churches, at the end of all this productivity, souls should be won. The Kingdom of God should be increased. If this is not the case, then the cries of the harvesters enter the ears of the Lord of the Armies of God. They are not just crying out for their own food, but for the lost and the wherewithal to reach them. They are not just crying for money, but for people. If the ministries you are associated with seem to be evangelistic in nature, find out if they are truly productive. Are they able to prove Christ is the Son of God, is alive and the only way to God? Do they know how to share or preach the simple Gospel, which produces the power for salvations and miracles? If so, find out exactly where they are attempting to reap, if they have a harvest plan and if they are being successful. Here is something else investing believers should educate themselves about. In the past, Bible school students were taught that the best place to begin evangelizing is in major cities. As I mentioned earlier, this made sesnse years ago because the highest concentrations of unreached people lived in cities. However, that is no longer always the case in most of the nations sparsely populated with Christians. Many of the major cities in these lands have had numerous chances to hear the Gospel through evangelism crusades and other outreaches. Today, the vast majority of Gospel work is still being done in the major cities, while large percentages of the village populations remain virtually untouched. Because of the difficulty of reaching those villages, some Bible school students in this generation were taught that the best thing to do now is to hold crusades in major cities, but also teach the pastors in those cities how to evangelize, so they will take the Good News to more rural or remote villages. Unfortunately, this theory does not work on a widespread basis, for several reasons. Among those reasons is that, even if enough truth is taught to those pastors to do an effective job, sadly most city pastors in developing
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nations are quite unwilling to give their lives to reaching villages. Most simply cannot! Just traveling to villages requires vehicles and is prohibitively difficult and time-consuming. Similarly, Bible schools started in those nations will increase a believers knowledge of the Word, but will not produce harvesters who will reap consistently in those unreached villages, if the focus of that Bible school is not how to preach, and have confidence in, the simple Gospel. Students must be properly motivated and trained, in order for them to be willing to overcome the difficulties involved in traveling to, or living and working in villages. Those villages are usually where the greatest need is found, yet they often cannot provide sufficient income and housing for the pastors family, or education for the pastors children. In this wonderful age of technology, some ministers are convinced that television is this generations best means of evangelizing. While all believers thank God for the good done through Christian television programming, we must intelligently consider that many Christian broadcasts from America or Europe are distributed into other nations via cable networks. Unfortunately, many pagan villagers either do not own televisions or computers, or they cannot afford, or will not subscribe to, Christian cable networks. This is especially true of those steeped in a false religion. Please realize that when a television network boasts of beaming across a nation to a billion people almost always there are very few of that billion who have purchased the cable packages that will allow them to see their programming. Another problem is that many of the programs translated into another language from America or Europe are geared toward the audience of the nation in which they were recorded. So often, what is said does not fully relate to the people of a foreign society. An even worse blockade to soul-winning success, however, is that most Christian programming, geared toward a Christian audience, seldom presents the Gospel in a form that gives enough information about Christ to the foreign listener for them to be saved.
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There are a few nations where many villagers have access to television and where Christian programming is allowed on a government-controlled or other free station. In these situations evangelistic programming could be successful. Unfortunately, often the preachers will find themselves booted off the station, if they become too bold about the power-points of the Gospel; including Christs virgin birth, His miracle life to show the nature of God, His sacrificial death for the remission of sin and His resurrection. Attempts to convert people from another religion to Christianity can result in a prison sentence, in some nations. Even simply declaring that Jesus is the Son of God and the only way to salvation is sometimes prohibited. Proclaiming that one life-saving truth seems to make some Moslem leaders especially irate! Should a minister be able to present enough information on a television program for salvation to occur, and they can also instruct the listeners how to receive Christ and become children of God through prayer, then television becomes a tremendous tool for evangelism. In so many nations, though, this seldom all works together properly because the preachers are forced to submit to the dominant religion in control of the nation and station. We do know of one minister, however, who sends out free teachings regarding salvation to anyone who writes or emails his ministry after viewing his program, so pagans from his nation are at least able to be saved as a result of his television ministry. With all this in mind, while television can effectively evangelize, it is important for the Body of Christ to have sufficient information about what is actually accomplished through a program or network, in order to make Spiritually sound decisions with their finances. I have often said, the Church needs to think like crafty and successful businessmen! If a good businessman invests in something that does not reap for them a good profit, they will stop investing there and put their money elsewhere. Why, then, will the Church keep investing in the same things over and over, regardless
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of whether it is producing a profit of souls? We should ask our Father to steer us to wisely invest our time, energy, money and manpower; and be open to new methodologies, while tenaciously sticking with what works and produces for the Kingdom. The same is true regarding what is called church planting. When deciding which ministries to undergird financially in this regard, it would be beneficial to ask questions. How are the churches planted? Are these new congregations made up of new converts, or are they transplants from other churches? Is the pastor harvest-minded and can he train the congregation to reach out, so the harvest cycle will continue? Does he already plan to do so? Where did the pastor receive his training? New churches that will continue harvesting villages around them can be useful tools in the hands of God! If you are convinced that a harvest will probably continue to be reaped after the church begins, you will be making a wise investment to help that ministry. A word of caution, though! Beware of ministries that declare they have birthed hundreds of churches in one year. Find out just how they did that. It is physically impossible to accomplish this feat, without a tremendously huge army of well-trained workers, a well-mapped-out harvest plan and lots of money. Even then, it may very well be an impossible task! So, how do ministries add hundreds of churches to their organizations roll? Many times, I have observed how ministers from the United States hold a pastors seminar on a foreign field, then invite all the pastors in attendance to join their organization. Often they promise them monthly support and/or a T-shirt or something else. So, the pastors gladly sign up. It makes no difference to them if the preacher returns to the States and says he has added 200 new churches to his organization. It also usually does little to affect the harvest of that nation. If you think you know of an exception, please be sure to ask questions and find out the particular details you need to know, in order to make a decision
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of which God approves. Let us all remember we will answer to God, if we leave the masses of the worlds lost on the road to Hell. I believe with all my heart it is an evil thing to not make reaching the lost a priority consideration in our monetary decisions. It is evil not to provide the finances and manpower to see to it that the job is done.
Changing the Minds of our Youth

Some ministers and parents will need to make changes in what they communicate to the young people under their care, when they understand the need for manpower in the harvest fields of our world. One way to know if you have been influencing those youngsters correctly is to ask yourself these questions: Are the college-educated young people you know willing to give their lives to service on the mission field? Have they even considered it? Would they even consider it? Most would not, because the goal set before them is a good paying job that provides a good living. However, while they are working toward a good life, the lost are not receiving life at all. Please understand that I am not demeaning a college education. Many ministers would do well to be better educated and, certainly, education and a secular career may be the will of God for many young people. I am only concerned at the lack of young men and women who are willing to even consider giving their lives to reach the lost, in general and the unreached, in particular. I thank God for youth organizations like Youth with a Mission and Teen Mania who have at least given sharp, capable young people an opportunity to experience the mission field. So, lets not allow the devil or the world to have our young people! Let us, as parents, preachers and role models be willing to give them to God; and let us pray that He will use them to reach out to the need in this generation. Some will tell you: The best people to reach any people is their own people, so let the nationals reach their own countries and let your youngsters reach theirs. While it might be correct that the best people to reach any people
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is their own people, the hard-to-accept truth is, after hundreds of years of being in possession of the Gospel, the nationals in many countries have not succeeded at reaching their own. They need help and direction of all sorts and I am sorry to report that in numerous nations, it will be this way for quite awhile.
For Serious Field-Workers

In this book, it is not possible to discuss how to develop a harvest plan, how to choose a national champion with whom to work, how to crusade and train up pastors and leaders and related subjects. These are topics that need to be taught in Bible schools by men of God who are not only full of experience, but who have succeeded at netting many souls into the Kingdom. Take care when sending the young people you influence to certain Bible schools. At that tender age, they are most pliable and whatever the focus and emphasis on the Word of God is at that Bible school, that will most likely stick in the hearts and minds of those young people throughout their lives. If the leader of the school is not harvestminded, your young people will come out of school knowing lots of things about the Bible, but not being worth a dime a carload on the street. If you minister to teenagers, recognize how they often face the same inner hindrances to giving their lives for the harvest as adults. This includes the love of money being the root of all evil. Loving money, position, power over people, the good life or recognition can all be considered the root of evil. It is a wise man or woman who can help steer a young person through the maze of options provided for them. Youth of all ages must be taught to develop faith in God for their provisions, for direction and for everything pertaining to their lives. Yet, to be so overwhelmed with material goals that they learn to love mammon more than God, could give the devil enough leverage to steer them off the course God has charted for their lives. REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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CHAPTER TEN
Help for Ministers
n previous chapters, we spoke about the love of money being the root of all evil and carefully presented synonyms for money, such as power, authority, prestige, the quest for dominance or the chief chair. While all of us enjoy being honored, if we seek to be honored, it will cause us to enter into religious politics. For instance, if you observe someone else being used of God and their being exalted makes you feel grumpy because you think you are more spiritual than they are, this is a form of love of money. Money represents power, authority and acknowledgement by our fellow man. The reason men of God today can successfully teach false doctrine, or major on a wrong emphasis, is they control a lot of money; so people feel they must be correct or God would not have blessed them so much. If a minister with lesser fame and fortune were to teach similarly, those same people might hesitate to receive his teachings. The very word minister implies servitude or servanthood. Ministering angels are angels who serve us and minister to our needs. Until a minister serves others, he is not a minister. Even
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a government minister, such as the Minister of Education, is technically one who serves education. It is their job to see to it that you and your children have a good educational system. He or she must give themselves to that job, in the hopes that our countrys educational system will be counted among the finest in the world. In an attempt to do this, the Minister of Education must minister to the needs of the people. When someone says they want to be a minister, it should mean they want to become a servant to the people. In the back of their minds, they should never be thinking, If I want the chief seat, the biggest home and most luxurious car, I need to become a famous minister. Jesus said, The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:11,12 NIV) Nowhere in the Scriptures did Jesus refer to His disciples as eventually being called Master. Only He would ever be called Master. In so doing, He became the chief servant of all! Truly great ministers give themselves to the people and have true compassion for the destitute, the broken and those with despicable diseases and needs. During my many years of overseas ministry, I have worked with many different ministers. Some of them truly loved the people. They would touch lepers, encourage the downtrodden and reach out in any way they could, whenever it was humanly possible even though they were well-known and preached on platforms to large crowds. I have seen others who will do anything to avoid being close to the people. Knowing how to maneuver crowds and build your image is all well and good, but if you want to walk with God and have the power to influence others in a way that positively impacts the Kingdom of Heaven, you must stay free of sin that brings reproach and shame on the ministry; and you must allow Christs compassion for the lost to flow through you and from you. In Matthew, chapter 9, Jesus insisted we look on the multitudes because they are like sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless against their
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enemy, Satan. (vs.36) I have watched ministers around me strive to become wellknown. Some of them have come to our crusades and taken pictures, which they put in their publication without even mentioning us. It is easy to read their motives. They are interested in building a reputation. I am not interested in associating with this kind of minister. A true minister will help you become the greatest servant of all. Jesus said those who want to be the greatest must become the servant of all. Being a servant to all means having a purpose. When you are truly a servant to the people, it will be evident by the fruit in your life. Matthew 20:26-28 Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. NIV Those who love money grow their roots in confusion, disarray and broken lives. I know some wealthy, well-known ministers, whose personal lives do not bear much good fruit. They have used their wealth to control others and end up destroying lives, all for the sake of the ministers image. The love of money goes far beyond cars and houses. Let me reiterate what I believe about prosperity. I do not believe that being rich or well-known is wrong. Wealth and fame are not synonymous with evil. However, the love of those riches and the willingness to do anything to acquire them is wrong. It is also wrong to consider that any minister can do solely what they choose with their wealth, without considering the will of the Father. If they do, they will most likely make serious mistakes that will hinder the harvest somewhere. A minister does not need to be well-known and wealthy to be guilty of these mistakes. What I have noticed throughout the years
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is that some young ministers are disloyal to the ministers or pastors to whom they are supposed to be submitted; and they actually end up using them or hurting them. At the hub of this type of situation is usually a desire for recognition and finances. If God is blessing you and increasing you in many areas, including finances and position, there will be new temptations to face. Beware that, at some point, you do not become afraid of the spiritually strong men with uncompromising character, who may be stronger in some ways than you. If you choose to keep only weak men around you, who will bow to your ideas and strategem, you will eliminate one of the ways God is able to bring correction. All ministers need to have honest influences around them. Please understand, I am not against a man of God being respected and honored, when that respect and honor is due them. Men who discipline themselves and give themselves to the people are to be honored. Remember this, though, When you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. If you build your image and profile on the illusion of wealth, based on the wealth of this world, there will be evil all through your walk with God. As others follow the path on which you have walked, they will find casualties. This does not mean that, if you do everything righteously, everyone will think you are the greatest. There will always be those who reject every minister. After a lifetime of observing men in ministry, I have noticed how those who truly had the power of God manifesting through them also continually maintained the attitude of a servant. I remember one fine professor in the Bible College I attended said, If you want to be used to heal the sick, just ask God to help you; but remember there is a price you must be willing to pay. The price is that you are never your own. Those of us who have a reputation for seeing a lot of healing miracles do not have any more power than you do, but we have obtained experience, boldness and confidence in the power of the
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Gospel. Yes, we have paid a price, but the wonderful thing about the Kingdom of God is that you can never pay or give more than you will eventually receive from the Lord. As we all set our sights on things above, let us be content to be the servants of all. Jesus did not have a place to lay His head because he was a servant to all. In our generation, most of us ministers have so much more, because of what He did for us! What a wonderful legacy our Lord has left for those who follow Him!
What will be your legacy?

One of the first things that comes to mind, when I think of Abraham Lincoln, is that he was the President of the United States who abolished slavery. When I hear the name of former President Regan, my first thoughts are about the part he played in our modern dealings with Russia. When I ponder what is probably the first President Bushs legacy, in the minds of the American people, it is his handling of Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War. His actions endeared him to many Americans for a time. Likewise, President Trumans legacy, in my mind, was two fold: Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He was the president who gave the command to, Drop the atom bomb! He is also largely remembered for firing General MacArthur. Regardless of what others say or remember about these men, these are the things I immediately think about when I hear their names. Those accomplishments, whether they were right or wrong in the mind of historians, are their legacies to me. The legacy of Jesus is manifold. He gave us the memory of how God in the flesh healed everyone who came to Him. He made us understand the Kingdom He controlled was not of this world, and still is not. (As Christ was about to ascend into Heaven, His disciples hoped it was time for the Kingdom of Israel to be restored. While looking in the face of their resurrected Lord, their minds immediately focused on the worlds system and how they would be positioned within it! Acts 1:6-8) Instead, our Lord gave us the legacy of Calvary. His courage
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on the Cross brought us courage to carry ours, for we know He lives to make intercession for us at the right hand of the Father. His legacy is the also the Holy Spirit who gives us power to witness our faith. What is the legacy of the Apostle Pauls life? Part of his legacy is Ephesus and the west coast of Asia Minor. Other thoughts that occur to me instantly whenever Pauls name is mentioned is that he was not ashamed of the Gospel and he made himself a prisoner of the Gospel. I also think of his road to Damascus experience, which occurred when he was on his way to torture and imprison Christians. Suddenly, a blinding light appeared! Do not ever make the mistake of thinking that light came to him because he was great. It came because he was stubborn and needed his salvation doctrine corrected. When he had to be led away by others because the light blinded him, he changed. That is probably the most potent legacy he left behind: a willingness to change! Later, just before he left this Earth, Paul wrote down what he wanted to include in his legacy to the Church. In essence, he said, Do not change. Do not waver from the emphasis of spreading the Gospel. Do not go from wave to wave, leaving the Gospel in the wake, in order to ascend. If Paul were preaching to us today, he would tell us that he expects each one of us to take the job of the Church seriously, even if we are at a point of discouragement in our own lives. If you are, be encouraged! If you are on the junk heap, then get off! Find out what makes a Christian really wealthy. Understand why some give their lives to minister to the poor, the sick, the maimed and lame; then set your affection on eternal things. Think about why Peter had to fight to not be remembered as the one who denied Christ three times. Ponder why he was so inconsistent during his time of learning from Jesus; and why the Lord once said to Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan! All of us know of that incident, but I believe the underlying cause for Peters remarks is that he did not want to give up the power he was
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experiencing, as he walked with Christ on this Earth. He did not want things to change. Unfortunately, if a believer embarrasses the Kingdom of God, they will most likely be remembered for that. It will be part of their legacy, just the way certain of our past presidents are most remembered for their sexually illicit conduct. Some of the recent moral falls among well-known ministers are good examples of this. I was so grieved to hear about one of them in particular because he had done a good job at adjusting his television program internationally. He not only had his messages translated into each nations language properly, but he understood the importance of changing his examples and analogies to make them relevant to each society. His program was a blessing, but that minister will be most remembered for the sexual scandal that took him out. Probably, somewhere among the motives of this mans heart was a desire to win souls, but even the quest for souls can be wrongly motivated. Of course, God would never reject those who were saved after someone preached the Gospel with a wrong motive. Yet, we must be smart enough to understand that, just because ministers produce miracles, it does not mean their hearts and motives are right. All of us know ministers who had been in sin for years, before being exposed, yet they were a blessing to many during those years of sinful living. As for you, think about what it is you would most like folks to remember about you. Jesus is not remembered for his great earthly estate. He is remembered for what He did on a hill called Calvary and for his empty tomb!
Rearranging Priorities
The legacy someone leaves says a lot about the priorities they had during their lifetime on Earth. The one thing we remember most about the missionary Livingston is that, when they found him dead, he was in his tent and on his knees. He had been praying. I do not know if he prayed often in this same
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manner, but that legacy is one that still inspires believers today. Ask yourself: What is my source of power and authority? What am I really reaching for? What are the goals that make me tick? What is really important to me? How do I want to be remembered? After I pass away, I would not mind being remembered as the man not many people knew, but who won many people to Christ. I do not believe critics will be able to criticize that legacy. I hope it will include the fact that I kept going as long and as hard as I could. Actually, it does not even matter to me if people remember the things I accomplished, because it is what God will remember me for that really counts. I want Heavens record books to state that a lot of people made it to Heaven because of the priorities I established in my life, while I was alive on Earth. Each one of us, as we develop our quest in life and eventually experience a zeal for recognition of our good works, should determine to make and keep our priorities correct. Let us focus our quest with the words of Jesus in mind: Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Mt.10:39 NIV) Jesus was not necessarily speaking of death in those verses. He was speaking of losing out on Gods plan and purpose for your life and the chance for a heavenly legacy to bring both you and the Lord the ultimate kind of eternal honor. Once a minister, or a believer, saves his life and misses the mark, he or she will never know what they lost. You cannot know what you have lost, if you never had it, anymore than you can come back from a place you have never been. Only God knows what might have been, if you had made the correct decisions along the way. In this same context, Jesus pointed out how those who demand seats of importance might be asked to move down. Our idea of who is going to be first in the Kingdom of God may be different than how God thinks. We may get to Heaven and ask Peter, Whose beautiful mansion is that? He may reply, That is the mansion of the woman in your church who faithfully witnessed door-to-door.
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You see, what we consider wealth and power here, and what God considers wealth and power, may be quite different. Remember His exhortations to the churches in the Book of Revelations. To the Church in Smyrna Christ wrote: I know your afflictions and your poverty yet you are rich! (Rev 2:9 NIV) To the Church in Laodicea he wrote: You say, `I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. (Rev 3:17-18 NIV) In Philippine villages, pigs and fighting roosters are signs of wealth in a home. In Papua, New Guinea, when our interpreter translated Lamb of God he wanted to say, Pig of God because pigs are important animals in that country. (Wooly lambs are probably not happy there because of the heat.) He also wanted to translate the words poor farmer as old rubbish man. There is no word in that language for poor or for farmer. What is wealth to one is rubbish to another. What is wealth to one is useless to another. To give a mink coat to a woman in New Guinea would be useless. It would mean nothing to her, for she could never wear it. She would lose fifty pounds the first day sweating in it. Neither would you give an Eskimo a swimsuit, if there is nowhere to swim but the icy waters around her home. For us believers, wealth can be found in the Scriptures. I want the heathen for a legacy. I do not want their land. I want their souls! In the Old Testament, God sometimes instructed His children to inhabit a land and kill every living thing in it! This is no longer the case. The New Testament Church is not instructed to take lands. We are to want the people! That is all Jesus wanted! He wanted the people to know the true and living God! We are to have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Phil. 2:6,7 NKJV) Strongs defines the Greek word translated equal as,
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similar in kind and amount. Jesus did not rob God because He worked as God worked. He worked with Him, alongside of Him, and with His same mind and purpose. We are to work alongside of God, too, with His same mind-set. Is it an accident that we are called children of God? Did God make a mistake doing that? No! Jesus, the first born of many, explained that He did what He saw His Father do and He made this one thing clear to His disciples: If you want to see God, look at Me! Observe what I do and you will learn to understand the character and nature of your God. When my wife and I preach the Gospel to the heathen, we always emphasize this point. Not only do we boldly proclaim the other supernatural elements of the Life of Christ His virgin birth, His shed blood for the remission of sin, and the resurrection but we always include how Jesus showed the human race the will and nature of God, by healing everyone who came to Him and by forgiving the most vile of sins. The Gospel of John reiterates this time and time again, stating that Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus is also one with us. Therefore, we are one with God. When we rob God today, it is by not fulfilling the call on every one of our lives to the ministry of reconciliation. Every minister and every believer is called to that ministry. Yes, money will always be a part of fulfilling that calling because, Where your treasure is, your heart is, also. (Mt. 6:21 NIV) However, as ministers, when He has your whole heart, your priorities will be correct and the legacy you leave behind will honor both you and your God.
Help for Pastors

II Timothy 1:5-9 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God
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did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or be ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the Gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. And of this Gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day. What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. NIV Young pastor Timothy must have had to deal with what is still a common concern among ministers. They fear what people think of their message. Constant criticism, loss of parishioners or obvious disinterest can discourage any pastor. Paul found it necessary to exhort Timothy not to be discouraged or afraid, but instead to stir up the gift within him. This verse is not dealing with what is traditionally known as gifts of the Spirit, but is dealing with the work of the Holy Spirit during the time Timothys ministry assignment was made known to the people. What is most important in these verses, and the ones immediately following, is how they result in directing Timothy to keep the Gospel in first place. To stir up means to rekindle. If Timothy would stir up the Holy Spirit and His emphasis, he
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would rekindle the courage to keep the first love in a priority position. Pauls pleading with Timothy ended with the reminder that, every single other minister Paul had influenced concerning the priority job of the Church for the Gospels sake had stopped emphasizing reaching the unreached. Paul did not want Timothy to be guilty of the same sin. At the risk of repeating myself, I find it difficult to comprehend how, even those ministers whom Paul raised up in Ephesus during his years there left the prime directive of the Church. Years later, after thousands of people and many ministers had been taught and influenced by Paul, he should have been at the pinnacle of his ministry. He should have been labeled a great success, with accolades coming from those he had mentored and taught to win souls. Yet, this was not the case. Nonetheless, I believe Paul knew a kind of joy those other ministers could not understand, as he looked back over his ministry and realized he had brought the Gospel to a great many people. Toward the end of Pauls life, he declared: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (II Tim 4:7,8 NIV) There must have been times when he was weary and wanted to slow down. I imagine all ministers feel that way, at times. Yet, when we experience those moments, Christ would have us heed the exhortation of Paul and remember the first love. We must keep running, so our flame burns as brightly as it can for as long as we live. This is the gift of God that is within us. When Paul laid hands on Timothy, probably in front of the people he would shepherd, Timothys demeanor of submission meant he also submitted to Pauls apostleship. Through his prayer, Paul must have in essence said, I have spoken forth the acknowledgment of your assignment. Do not love the frills and the popularity and do not leave the truth and the purpose of the Church. Instead, stir up with enthusiasm the beautiful gift of God: the Gospel! Later, as Paul wrote how his life was about to end for the
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Gospels sake, he was no doubt grieved. Yet, the victory in this letter to Timothy lies in the fact that Paul knew he had done all he could do to admonish him. The rest was up to Pastor Timothy. Would he let the Gospel Light shine brightly through him? Would he continually, throughout his life and ministry, stir up the first love within him? Or would he yield to the fear that, if he does not shift with the new wave, the people will prefer someone else to pastor them? Paul hoped Timothy would not end up like Phygelus and Hermogenes, who had turned away from the purpose and robbed God of His creation by no longer feeling it important to do all they could to spread the Good News. Perhaps the direction they chose was spurred by their fear of what other people would do or say. What would Jesus and Paul say to pastors today? Would Christ look at each one and rejoice that they have kept the emphasis on reaching the lost and on the power of the Gospel; or would He chasten them for the way they have allowed ministers to become the chief emphasis, instead of Himself and His purpose? Many have done just that, by drawing more attention to themselves than to the work of Christ on the Cross. That is like dining in a beautiful hotel, with nice glasses on the table filled with delicious, fresh fruit juice. After drinking the juice, we would not ordinarily say, Oh, that was a wonderful glass! Of course not! We would most likely remark on what we drank, for the glass is just a glass and we usually do not give it much attention. Instead, we focus on what the vessel holds. Similarly, when a fireman runs to a building that is on fire, and hooks a hose to a water source, the people watching do not say, Oh, what a beautiful hose! Yet, that is what some in churches are guilty of today. They look at the messenger and honor it above the message. Whether we have done it purposely or not, the emphasis is often on the man of God, rather than the God of man. Many famous men of God cannot help the manner in which others exalt
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them. They are victims of the times, and please understand I am not saying that all exaltation of man is evil. What I am saying is that, if the vessel does not understand they are only a vessel with which to give out the Spring of Life, then the vessel becomes a vessel unto themselves and thinks more highly of themselves than they ought. Next, they leave the first love, if they ever had it to begin with, and begin to lead the people they influence away from that love. They find a different emphasis and stretch this scripture and that verse, causing one emphasis wave after another. They will do anything to get the attention turned toward their meetings, resulting in larger crowds coming to watch them. In many cases, this is the beginning of all their followers leaving the first love. Watch for the truth. Listen for the emphasis. Often, this kind of minister will give something to missions because they feel they must, to sooth their donors. They will speak much about it, but never disclose the amount they give because it would be embarrassing. Unfortunately, sometimes they also use poor judgment in choosing to whom they give these offerings. Some churches and ministries, of course, do give to effective harvesters at really helpful times. Watch carefully, though. If a harvest ministry is genuine and productive, sometimes its newsletter reports are shared from church pulpits, for the purpose of increasing that particular offering. There is certainly nothing wrong with this, especially if the congregation needs to be reminded why they should remain financially faithful to give to their church. However, if those glorious reports are simply used as bait to increase the general income, which is then used as the pastor sees fit - without ever benefiting that harvest ministry - that is wrong. Of course, this is certainly not the case with most ministries and churches, thank God! Those who have, with a genuine heart, helped the plight of the lost and reported honestly their part in whatever harvest has been reaped, will learn who they can trust. They will ask questions. There are good honest ministries and
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churches who will invest your money wisely on behalf of the Kingdom of God. Just beware that the kind of subversive activity I have shared here exists and do not fall into these traps, or the other traps that snared ministers in Pauls time. If you are a pastor, then love your people and be compassionate in your ministry of power. Never be afraid to stand up for the truth, regardless of what it costs you. Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. If Paul were here, he would admonish all pastors, Do not be ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation! (Rm.1:16) I hope they put on my tombstone, He always preached the Gospel! REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
The End
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he natural destiny of every human being is death: the cessation of life as we know it on this Earth. Yet, the Word of God insists there is life after death. In an effort to help those who are uncertain about the reality and existence of a literal Hell, we have compiled this list of Bible verses to inform you and, hopefully, persuade you to make the eternal-life-saving decision to accept Christ as your Savior. I am aware that, in some Christian circles, current debates thrive regarding the various Greek words translated Hell or Hades, their meanings and their locations. It is not my intent to disregard what others consider important; but I do believe that jarring the mind and soul of those who doubt there will be eternal consequences for whoever does not know Christ as their Savior should begin with the introduction of the following verses. Greek words used in this list, along with their synonyms or definitions, were taken from: Biblesofts New Exhaustive Strongs Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary.
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Is There a Real Hell and Heaven?
Luke 16:19-24 There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich mans table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abrahams side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. NIV (Hell: Hades, the place of departed souls.) Mark 9:43-48 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into Hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into Hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into Hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. NIV (Hell: Geena, used [figuratively] as a name for the place [or state] of everlasting punishment.) Matthew 23:33-34 You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to Hell? NIV (Hell: Geena) Matthew 5:22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, Raca is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But
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anyone who says, You fool! will be in danger of the fire of Hell. NIV (Hell: Geena) Hebrews 6:1-3 Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. NIV (eternal: Aionios: perpetual forever) (judgment: krima: a decision: the function or the effect, for or against [crime] KJV - avenge, condemned, condemnation, damnation, + go to law, judgment.) II Peter 3:7 By the same word the present heavens and Earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. NIV (judgment: krisis; by implication, justice [especially, divine law] KJVaccusation, condemnation, damnation, judgment.) Romans 2:8-9 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; NIV (wrath: orge; by analogy, violent passion or [justifiable] abhorrence; by implication punishment.) Jude 5-7 I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home - these He has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for
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judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. NIV (eternal: aionios: perpetual. Fire: pur: fire) II Peter 2:1-10 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them - bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to Hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) - if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. NIV (sent them to hell: tartaroo: the deepest abyss of Hades; to incarcerate in eternal torment) Revelation 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the
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lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. NIV (lake of burning sulfur: pur: fire and theion: [sense of flashing] sulphur) Revelation 20:14-21 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyones name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. NIV (Hades: haides: the place (state) of departed souls.) (fire: pur: fire) Hell is a frightening place and should be shunned! Heaven, on the other hand, appears to be a glorious place to enjoy our eternal future. For your edification, here are a handful of the many Bible verses promising this glorious reward for becoming Gods children: for believing in Christ and calling on His Name.
IS HEAVEN REAL?
Heaven, like salvation, must be accepted by faith. Theologians may disagree on the location of Heaven and other particulars, but the common thread that runs through everyones teaching is how the reality of Heaven must be accepted by faith. The writer of Hebrews begins chapter 11 (known as the faith chapter) with: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. He goes on to share the acts of faith of Old Testament men and women. In the middle of all these inspiring accounts he states: All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on Earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country a heavenly one.
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Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them ... (Hebrews 11: 13-16 NIV) Of course, the Apostle John gives us the best description of Heaven and what life will be like there in Revelations, chapter 21. Whether or not you feel his account is figurative or literal, Heaven does seem to be beyond our earthly ability to understand. I am not certain even John understood what he was writing. He took it by faith and so must we! Please read slowly what he wrote and understand that this goal is what we should keep in mind while we are on Earth. Let us all do all we can to take as many with us as possible! John wrote: Then I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new! Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. (Rev.21:1-5 NIV) Marilyn and I have ministered in so many places where many poor people live in poverty and pain and are constantly surrounded by death and mourning. At times, it seems difficult to believe there will ever be a time and place where those people will no longer suffer these things. Thank God, though, He promised He will make everything new! His words are trustworthy and true! John continued sharing those words of our Lord: It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who
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overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Rev. 21:6-14 NIV) After I see Jesus in Heaven, one of the first things I want to do is to look up those twelve apostles of the Lamb. They are highly regarded by our Lord, yet only the Apostle John died of old age. Evidently, the others were martyred. Preaching the Gospel was perilous in those days, as it is in some nations today. Often, after people inform us they are praying for us while we are on missions, they say, We know God will protect you! I must admit it has crossed my mind to respond, Right! Just like when He protected the original Apostles. Marilyn knows what I am thinking about saying, so she just gives me that look that says, Quit thinking those thoughts! I dont know why God allowed His valued Gospel preachers to be killed, but I know that such questions will be answered when I get to Heaven, if they have not been answered before then. John continues in verse 15:
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The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by mans measurement, which the angel was using. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. (Rev.21:15-21 NIV) The next passages are among my favorites. They not only describe a beautiful picture of something very wonderful, but they make our options very clear. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lambs book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.
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On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever. (Rev. 21:22-27, 22: 1-5 NIV) While we can enjoy thinking about the glorious things we will see in Heaven, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear, take note of how Revelation, chapter 21 ends. It is an admonishment to anyone who truly wants to please God. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lambs book of life. (vs.27) John 3:16 declares it is the will of God that none should perish. Unfortunately, God also clarified that some would perish anyway. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. (Rev.21:8) Finally, we must never think of the joy and glory of Heaven without reminding ourselves of our Lords commission to the Church in Mark 16:15: Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation. (NIV) He repeated what He expects of us in Matthew 28:18-20: All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples (Christians) of all
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nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (NIV) REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!
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Enter the number of books you want in the space before the title. ____ Diary of A Soldier The exciting accounts of divine intervention in India, while the first four million people were won to the Lord, through the India Harvest Plan. (Price: $5 each) ____ Diary of A Soldier II: Faith for Miracles The sequel to Diary of a Soldier (volume 1.) It will increase your faith to receive and produce miracles. (Price: $7 each) ____Why Dont They Cry? An honest look at the Body of Christ today, and subtle doctrines of devils that have hindered the harvest. (Price: $7 each) ____First Love: The Key to Heavenly Reward Christians will learn how their eternal rewards are determined by what they do while on the Earth. (Price: $5) ____How To Survive in a Third World Nation A travel and packing guide for those about to embark on their first overseas missions trip to a developing nation. (Price: $3) ____ Until Nothing Else Matters This book will turn the hearts of believers towards the heart of God, and help them make reaching the unreached a priority in their life. (Price: $7) ____The Glorious Opportunity of the Church God gave Jerry ODell seven visions concerning the harvest. They will inspire you and open your eyes to the way God sees the world and the Church. (Price: $5) ____Fight For Your Family Raising your children to grow up and serve the Lord is not easy. This book offers spiritual wisdom and advice. If you already have children who are rebelling against God, there is a section that will help you fight the fight of faith for them, and win! (Price: $7) ____Pray Ye the Lord of the Harvest An exciting scriptural guide on how to pray for the Harvest and its laborers. (Price: $7) ____Miracles for All A definitive study on how to release miracle power for healing at all times, under any circumstances. (Price: $7) 124
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Jerry ODell The Most Evil Thing

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The Most Evil Thing on Earth

First Edition - December 2010

The Most Evil Thing on Earth Copyright 2010 by ODell Ministries

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The 3 Ds: Deception, Diversion and Discouragement

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what it appears it may cost them. REMEMBER: ETERNITY IS FOREVER!

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Misjudging the Consequences

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The Consequence of Our Disobedience

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When Ego Became Involved

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Did He Really Mean Me?

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Understanding The Root of Deception

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What does it mean to rob God?

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Correctly Judging The Love of Money

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The Focal Point of This Error

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